Winded
by RuthlessRennie
Summary: For so long, Myra depended on nobody but herself. It wasn't until she'd stumbled upon a rather interesting group of misfits, who reminded her of the carefree life she'd once been blessed with, that she began to change her perspective. This is the story of a girl who dared to dream in the cruel face of reality, with the help of some friends she'd made along the way.
1. Prologue

**I'm extremely excited about this fanfiction. I've never wrote an ongoing fic with an OC on my own before, so this is a thrilling new experience. This is just a prologue, the actual chapters will be longer normally. I already have so many things planned for this fanfiction, I can't wait to see it grow, and I hope you all enjoy reading it and witnessing my character, and the story grow together with me!  
****~ Read On ~**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Prologue**

* * *

"Fire at full force, men! Don't hold back!"

"YES SIR!"

The ship bustled with activity, every sailor's pair of feet pounding against the deck as they ran about, scrambling for their weapons and filling all canon's with bombs as fast as they could. We were currently in the middle of a planned attack against a notorious group of pirates who'd been causing quite a stir lately. Our marine base has been tracking them for quite some time, and had finally caught them out on the sea, nothing short of half an hour ago.

If I recall, they were called the strawhat pirates.

Truthfully, it was only the captain the navy had their eyes on. 'Stawhat' Luffy has quickly risen through the ranks, taking out stronger pirates one by one. For a young pirate to conduct so much destruction in such a short time, he's proven to be quite a dangerous threat.

The whole squad had their hands full, and like any other day, I should have been as well. But things have taken an unexpected turn for the worse. I had more pressing matters to deal with at the moment than playing 'hero' with the others.

"You snake," the commander hissed in my face, choking me in his grip as I struggled to break free. "Thought you could fool us, huh? How long did you think you could keep this sherade up, traitor?!"

"_You're_ the snake! Let me go, bastard!" I choked out in anger as I clawed at his arms. I couldn't help but mentally kick myself. _Shit! I was so close... and I blew it! _

Why couldn't I have been more careful?

"Don't think I haven't figured you out already! You work for him, don't you?! For _Vice Admiral Wes._" I shot pure daggers into the commander's eyes as I said this. I didn't care if it dug my grave deeper, I was long tired of surrounding myself with these filthy apes anyways.

His grip squeezed even tighter, making me wince. "If anyone will be asking questions here, it'll be me, you lying bitch!"

I gasped as I felt him lift me over the edge of the naval and hover me above the waves. He knew I couldn't swim; they really are going to kill me. _This is it, _I thought.

"This is the end of the line for you. Now rot in hell!"

And without a second to spare, he let go and I felt the harsh drop as I fell toward the sea waves; which were splashing recklessly due to the battle still going on between the ships. I squeezed my eyes shut and grit my teeth in frustration. _No! _

It can't end this way. I didn't come all this way, endure all of this torture, all for nothing. I refuse to let my efforts go to waste. But even so, there it was. The vast grand line, ready to swallow me up as I plummet closer and closer toward it. There was nothing more I could do. I bit my lip so hard I almost drew blood, and let go an ear piercing scream; just as I crashed into the water.

And I sunk. Deeper and deeper I went, until it got to a point where my lungs started to burn. After some time, my consciousness began to fall hazy. _I'm dying, this is what it feels like to die. _

And then soon enough, everything went black.

* * *

"What's going on out here? Who's the girl?"

"We saw her get thrown off the ship."

_Are those... voices? But, I thought..._

"But she's a marine! She could have been pretending, why would you go after her?"

"Just shut up and help me, dammit! She's practically clogged with water!"

_...I'm supposed to be dead._

"She was thrown by one of her own men, Zoro. We saw it. And she looked like she was seriously drowning, I really don't think that-"

"Hey, wait! Luffy, you guys, come over here! She's waking up!"

_Luffy?_

Immediately, I coughed up a generous amount of water. I could feel someone's hand underneath my head, keeping it leveled as the liquid escaped my lungs. I inhaled sharply, and let the oxygen flow through me; my body feeling relief as I could breathe again.

I opened my eyes at last, and my vision eventually focused on various heads looming over me. "Y-You... where am I?" I croaked out, my throat still raw from coughing up all the water. Everyone eyed me with curiosity, caution, and concern all at once.

"You're on a pirate ship. The one your fleet was just attacking."

A heavy weight like lead dropped in my chest. Oh, _hell_ no. "You're.. pirates..?"

I think I'm in deep trouble.

* * *

**Some basic facts about my OC:**

**Name: Myra  
Age: 18  
Birthday: September 25  
****Appearance: Blue eyes, Crimson red hair that stops just a couple inches past her shoulders, messy side bangs, tan skin  
****Height: 5'4"**

**That's all you get to know... for now ;) fave/follow/review if you like! **

**\- Natalie **


	2. Double Agent

**Chapter 2: Double Agent**

* * *

"This doesn't make any sense. So you're a marine-"

"_Former _marine." I corrected the man with radically colored green hair.

"And you say your commanding officer suddenly decided to throw you overboard? Right in the middle of an ambush at sea? Why would he have any reason to do that to one of his own soldiers?"

"I didn't say it like it was something out of my own imagination. You saw it happen, didn't you? Some of you did, at least." I gestured to the others surrounding me after ringing out my hair one last time. "And anyway, look over there."

I pointed toward the direction of the sea, where the fleet of marine ships were just barely visible over the horizon line. "They're long gone. It's obvious they aren't coming back for me, I'm not one of them anymore. How much more proof would you need?" I smirked playfully. "I'm not exactly biting your face off right now, am I?"

The swordsman grumbled to himself.

"By the way, since I'm sharing so much, why don't you guys tell me exactly who you Straw Hat's are?"

The captain stepped in, sporting a wide smile. "My name's Monkey D. Luffy, the guy who's gonna be king of the pirates."

Up until now, I'd only known this man by his nickname 'Straw hat Luffy.' But after hearing his full name in it's entirety, my heart couldn't help but skip a beat or two.

_D, huh? I wonder..._

Ignoring my thoughts for the moment, I pressed on with the conversation. "King of the pirates, huh? That's quite the confidence you have there."

"You bet!" he chirped happily. I couldn't help but find his enthusiasm contagious. At least the captain believed me.

"I'm Nami, the navigator of this ship." A girl who looked to be around the same age as me stepped in. "The grumpy one over there is Zoro," she jerked her thumb in the direction of the man I was teasing earlier, who shot her a warning glance.

"You better watch it."

Nami only stuck her tongue out at him childishly.

"The name is Usopp," a darker skinned man wearing goggles and a beige bandanna posed in front of the group heroically. "The great captain Usopp, the leader of this crew-!"

"Yeah right." Zoro came up behind him and whacked him on the head. Luffy erupted in laughter, and I couldn't help but snicker a little myself.

"Ow! What the hell was that for, Zoro?!"

The other girl stepped up and caught my attention. She appeared very gentle and kind. Her skin was pale as snow and her hair as blue as the sky above. She had it tied up in a long, gracious pony tail that ended at her waist. All in all, she was a gorgeous woman. "My name is Vivi. I'm not actually a member of this crew, I'm just travelling with them until... uh, Well, it's a long story actually." she laughed a little. "But these are my friends."

I nodded, smiling politely. "Nice to meet you, Vivi."

Suddenly, a blonde man stepped through and made his way toward me. He held a classy heir about him, tall, well-kept, dressed in a black suit and tie. He had just a touch of stubble accenting his chin and a slight smell of and cigarettes that gave off an edgier feel to him as well. He got up close and personal with me right away, boldly taking my hand in his and keeping perfect eye contact with me.

"I am the prince who swept you off your feet and saved you from the depths of that fierce ocean. You can call me Sanji, my love. But what may I have the privilege of addressing such a stunning, angelic beauty like yourself?"

Admittedly, I was taken by surprise for a moment. He sure didn't act like your stereotypical pirate. Although it was obvious to me that this guy was nothing more than a shameless ladies man. I was sure he spoke this way to every girl he saw. Even so, I humored him. "You can call me Myra, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Ah, such an exotic name!" he swooned to himself. "She truly is one of a kind!"

"Thank you." I acknowledged his kindness while pulling myself to my feet. "Listen everyone, I really appreciate you guys coming to save me. You really helped me out of a tight spot. You pirates must not be so bad if you willingly decided to dive in after a total stranger."

Zoro crossed his arms stubbornly. "Well, it was Sanji's idea, but..."

"It's no problem." Luffy grinned innocently.

I stared off into the sea, my smile growing placid. "I hope it wont be too much if I could ask you to do me one more tiny little favor?"

"Well, it depends what it is." Nami replied.

"All I ask is if you could lend me a small boat you might have on hand. It doesn't have to be in the best shape, as long as it can get me around."

"Wait, you're leaving so soon?" Sanji whined.

"I _am_ technically intruding your ship, after all. I wouldn't think it'd be very nice to stick around here uninvited. Besides, I'm sure you all have your own things you need to do and I myself have to get back on the move as soon as I can."

The navigator frowned. "I hate to burst your bubble, but we don't have any smaller boats stored in our ship to lend you. And even if we did, there's no way a tiny boat could get you very far out on this crazy sea."

After a while, I sighed in frustration. "Yeah, I guess you're right." my voice fell to a whisper while I pondered out loud. "What else should I do...?"

"Do you mind me asking where you plan to go next, Myra?" Vivi's voice asked behind me, a sympathetic tone ringing through her words.

I thought hard about it, until I realized that even though they were vile in my eyes, the marines were my best shot at getting to what I've been looking for. I knew there must be some other way, but for now I was all out of ideas. For now, I was right back at square one. My hands gripped the side of the ship a little tighter.

"You aren't going back to the marines?"

I turned back around, almost laughing. "Pfft, what for? They already kicked me out, there's no way they'd let me back in now. And hey, the more that I think about it, maybe its better this way. I couldn't stand being around those guys."

Everyone stared at me in confusion.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Usopp questioned.

"Oh, right, I guess I never told you." I chuckled nervously. "See, I was never actually a marine, per say. I joined the marines undercover, in hopes of finding out information and the whereabouts of someone I'm looking for, that's all."

"Ohh! So you're like a spy?" The captains eyes shined with excitement.

"You could say I am, yes."

"That's so cool!" Luffy exclaimed.

"I've been living the rogue lifestyle for quite some time at this point. I've gotten real good at sleuthing around and staying out of sight. At least, I was doing pretty good until they found me out and tried to kill me."

"You're a sleuth sniffing around for information on somebody, huh? So who is it you work for, exactly?" Zoro asked me, still skeptical.

I pressed my eyes hard on the swordsman. "Myself, and nobody else. I guess it's normal for you all to be suspicious. But I assure you, I'm no marine. I never was, I was merely playing the part of one for the last few years. And I have no interest in turning any criminals into the law. So you can rest easy, alright?"

Straw hat stalked up beside me. "So you have nowhere to go, then?"

"For now, yeah. I guess I don't." I shrugged simply.

"Hey captain," Sanji stepped in the conversation after taking a long drag of his cigarette. "Maybe we should have her stick with us until we find land."

Immediately I raised my hands in protest. "Wait a minute! I really don't want to weigh you all down with my problems. Are you sure that's okay?"

"Of course it is!" Sanji sang sweetly my way. "Our captain wouldn't have a problem with that, would you Luffy?"

The captain grinned from ear to ear. "Nah, its fine. You can stay with us as long as you want. The more the merrier!"

_For a pirate captain, he's pretty laid back, isn't he..? _I thought to myself in amazement.

Nami shrugged. "Well, there's no land or ships in sight. What more can we do?"

"I agree, she might as well stay." Vivi nodded to the group before approaching me with a blanket she suddenly held in her hands. "All of that aside, you must be cold. Why don't you wrap this around you and I'll show you where the bathroom is so you can wash up?"

I still didn't feel right about making myself at home with these group of pirates. Although, once I realized in the matter of seconds that the ships captain was dragging me by my arms across the deck excitedly like a puppy having it's first walk, I figured I didn't have much of a choice.

I smiled pityingly. "Alright, I guess I'll have to stay for now."

* * *

After I'd had a warm bath, cleaned up and changed into the t-shirt and shorts Vivi let me borrow, I finally let myself outside to explore the deck. Just as I opened the door and stepped out, I caught a generous whiff of something delicious, and my stomach growled obnoxiously. In all the craziness of what happened so far today, I didn't even realize how hungry I was.

"Myra darling~!" Sanji called to me from the deck above. "Lunch is all ready for you!"

I wordlessley showed my gratitude and made my way into the kitchen lounge. Everyone else was already inside well into gobbling down their meals. The captain was stuffing his face, Usopp was yelling at him for trying to steal his food away, while the other three minded their own business and tried to ignore the noisy confrontation near them. Eagerly I sat down and began digging into my own plate.

My taste buds sang in delight the second the pepper steak hit my mouth. "Oh, wow." I continued eating more, almost stuffing it in my mouth at this point from how starving I was and how amazing it tasted. "I've never had food this good before in my life!"

"Sanji is the best cook in the whole East Blue. You'll never find anyone else who makes food as good as he does!" Usopp told me as he was still slapping Luffy's hands away from his plate.

"East Blue? Is that where you all are from?"

"Most of us, yes." Vivi spoke up. "Although I'm from a country located here on the Grand Line."

"Really?" I already finished off the last bite on my plate.

"Actually, I need to go back home as soon as I can. It's the whole reason why I'm here on this ship."

"I see... where are you from, then?"

She hesitated. "Are you familiar with the country of sand, Alabasta?"

"Alabasta?" I thought for a minute. "Now that you mention it, the name does sort of ring a bell. I've heard it float around through a few gossiping soldiers mouths from time to time."

"Here's the twist; Vivi is actually the princess of that country." Nami chirped. "The princess of Alabasta, Nefertari Vivi."

My eyes nearly bugged out of my skull. "Y-You're the princess?"

She nodded.

"Wow! Who knew you were a part of the royal Nefertari bloodline. What in the world are you doing on a pirate ship, then?"

"It's a little complicated. You see, similar to your situation, I infiltrated a bounty hunter organization by the name of Baroque Works in hopes of finding out information. My country is in a lot of trouble right now, you see. We're on the brink of a war about to break out, and it's all because of one man."

My eyebrow cocked in curiousity, signalling her to continue the story. Her eyes suddenly filled with hate.

"Crocodile. One of the seven warlords of the sea."

Once again, my eyes opened big. "Crocodile? The man with an eighty-one million bounty on his head? So that's where he's been hiding..."

Vivi nodded. "He's chosen my country as a target for his own plans for quite some time. A couple years ago when I suspected something fishy was going on, that's when I decided to go in undercover with my royal guard Igaram to try to figure out what exactly he was plotting. Not too long ago, I ran into Luffy and the rest of this crew over in Whiskey Peak. One thing led to another and next thing I knew, Baroque Works found me out. I managed to escape their attack thanks to this crew taking me under their protection, but Igaram..." the girl's eyes narrowed in grief for a moment, before she shook it off.

"Anyway, that's why I'm on this ship."

"...Wow. You've really been through quite a lot. I'm sorry."

"It's alright." She smiled toward me and shook her head, the rest of the crew locked their gazes among the princess. "I have faith that with these kind and strong people by my side, that I just might be able to save my country."

"What do ya mean, _might? _I'm gonna clobber that Croc guy!" Luffy exclaimed with a flash of determination surging through him.

"Yeah, yeah. But don't forget this is mainly about stopping the rebellion. You got that Luffy?" Nami pointed toward the straw hat boy sternly.

"And we'll all be around to back you up." Zoro flashed a smirk.

"But before we can even go to Alabasta, we need to stop at Little Garden first."

I cocked my head. "Little Garden?"

Nami nodded to me and pointed at her log pose. "That's the next island we need to get to, we can't go to Alabasta without going here and letting the log pose adjust first."

"What's the island like? Is there a town I could stay at?"

Vivi sighed. "Unfortunately no. From what we heard from Miss All-Sunday, it's a big jungle full of nothing but monsters."

My heart sank a little. "Monsters, you say?" _Oh, lovely._

Luffy waved his hands around with enthusiasm. "Yeah, it sounds awesome! I can't wait! But enough of that for now, bring on more food!"

"You've had over six plates already! Other people need to eat too!" Sanji shouted, kicking his captain on the head.

Stifling a giggle ready to jump out of my throat, I stabbed my fork into the plate before me in hopes that stuffing my mouth with more of the cook's delicious food would help to seize my potential laughing fit.

My actions were promptly stopped, however, when I'd felt the unusual sensation of feathers grazing my legs. Cautiously, I peered under the table, and a short, startled squeak escaped me at the unexpected sight of a bird sitting perched underneath the wooden furniture. It bared the coat of many yellow feathers, and was about the same size as an ostrich I imagined. It's wide, black-tipped beak squawked at me in greeting, and I jumped.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did he scare you?" Vivi rested a hand on my shoulder, and I shook my head.

"N-No, not really. I was just surprised... he's yours, I take it?"

The princess nodded. "His name is Carue. I've had him ever since I was a little girl."

My expressions softened. "He's very cute."

The bird - Carue, squawked at me again in response, and Vivi giggled.

"He likes you already."

"Yeah, but he likes me better! Right, Carue?" Usopp cut in, bribing the bird with the last of his steak.

"Hey! You'd give your meat to the bird, but not to me?!" Luffy barked.

"Because of you, I barely got to eat anything at all!"

As the hectic scene unfolded before me, the boys and the cook arguing, Zoro and Nami griping in silence at the noise, and Vivi playing jovially with Carue beneath the table; I couldn't help but smile at the sheer craziness of it all. These pirates sure were interesting.

* * *

Later that night in the women's quarters, I found myself restless. Unable to sleep easy, I eventually gave up and crawled out of bed quietly so as to not wake Nami and Vivi. I padded around in my bare feet exploring the bedroom.

It was a cute little space, with some book shelves, potted plants and random paintings dressing the walls for decoration. There was even a little lounging sofa. Something square and wooden in the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I found myself drawn toward a small desk near the bed I was supposed to be sleeping soundly on. I sat myself down and let my hands gently look through the drawers. I was pleased to find a nice feather pen and some ink staring me in the face, and pulled them out. Looking in another drawer further underneath, I was lucky enough to find a small pad of paper. Once I set everything up, I got myself comfortable and started doing the one thing I do best.

I began to write a story.

* * *

**So, if you haven't figured it out already, this story begins at the point where the Straw Hat's are just about to reach Little Garden. I decided that was where Myra would come into the plot :L I hope you enjoyed! Fave/Follow/Review**

**\- Natalie**


	3. Prehistoric

**Chapter 3: Prehistoric**

* * *

_Travel log no.1, October 2..._

_New atmosphere, new journal. Long story short, I'd been thrown off the marines ship after getting brutally kicked out. So I'd lost my other log and had to start anew. I guess I've been thrown into a lot of new changes in my life lately. Whether they're for better or worse, I'm not sure yet. It's been about one solid day since I've been with the Straw Hat pirates, and I think it's safe to say I've settled in comfortably at this point. All of the crew members are pretty cool, even Zoro. Well... in his own way at least. I'm sure he will come around eventually. We still haven't seen any sign of Little Garden, but I'm positive we should be getting there any second by now. Apparently the island doesn't have any villagers settling on it, but that's no big deal. It won't hurt me to wait a little longer. I gotta admit, I'm pretty lucky to have stumbled across _another_ rare group of friendly pirates. This brings back a lot of good memories... _

I tucked my journal away and tipped the chair I was resting in backwards as a big yawn howled from my mouth. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I headed outside to join the others on deck. "Mornin' everyone."

"Morning." a few called back, while the others who were still in a just-waking-up mode (aka Zoro) only nodded toward me in acknowledgement.

"Ah, Myra! You're awake, my sweet." Sanji surprised me by suddenly bursting outside the kitchen door. In his hand he held a drink which appeared green and slightly fizzy, accompanied by a lemon wedge on the rim of the glass. "Would you like a drink? I made these for everyone just earlier."

"Oh, hey Sanji." I greeted, accepting his drink.

"Would you like some breakfast as well?"

"Yeah, I guess I did sleep in a bit by mistake, huh?" I rubbed the back of my neck in slight embarrassment. "I'm sorry if I slept through breakfast, I don't normally wake up this late, y'see..."

"It's no problem at all. Don't you worry about it, I can whip something up for you in a flash."

"That would be great, thank you."

Sanji nodded and then began heading back to the kitchen, his favorite place on the ship, when I stopped him.

"Oh, and Sanji?"

"Yes?"

I tucked some stray crimson locks behind my ear, smiling simple and sweet. "I wanted to thank you for yesterday, too. For saving me and all."

I could have sworn the hairs on his neck stood on end with the way he suddenly tensed, his teeth gripping their hold on the cigarette in his mouth so tight I thought it might break in two. It was almost humorous. I was about to ask if the man was alright when...

"It was my honor to protect the life of a beautiful lady such as yourself." he said with charm, bowing to me like a noble prince before turning back to stroll away to the kitchen once more. As he retreated I could hear him squeal under his breath, _"She's so cute.." _

I sighed, chuckling lowly. _Oh, brother. _

I explored the deck further, trying to find a way to keep myself busy when I noticed Usopp nearby. He held a mallet in one hand and a few nails hung from his big, puffy lips.

"Hey Usopp, I'm not interrupting too much, am I?" I pulled the man from his concentration. He briefly turned his head my way.

"Myra? When did you get up?"

"Not too long ago, I've been inside the quarters relaxing." I crouched beside him to examine an area of the vessel that appeared to be damaged. "Need any help?"

Usopp eyed me for a moment. "You.. know how to fix ships?"

I smirked. "I'm not just a pretty face, you know. I'm no shipwright, but I at least know as much as the average sailor."

"Well, thanks, but I think I can handle it. I'm just about done anyways." he replied, resuming to his task of hammering.

My fingers gently brushed across the white ledge. "She's a beautiful ship."

Usopp grinned with pride. "You bet she is. Her name is The Going Merry."

"The Going Merry? Unique, I like it. I'm a real fan of the figure head."

"I think it was supposed to look kind of like this guy I used to know. He worked for the girl who gave this ship to us."

"A girl gave you this ship?"

"Yeah, her name was Kaya." Usopp's eyes gleamed with slight nostalgia. "She's a good friend of mine, from my home village."

"Really?" I smiled faintly. "Must be nice to have people waiting for you back home."

He nodded.

"Do you ever miss it?"

"Well, sometimes. But sailing with Luffy and the others is a lot more fun than being stuck in my old village. I did love my home, don't get me wrong. But I know that I'll see Kaya and everyone again someday. For now, the sea calls for me."

"A life full of adventure on the sea, huh..." I grinned gently as I felt a soft breeze blow around me. "I know what you mean."

"What about you?" the sniper asked.

"What about me?"

"Do you ever miss your home?"

"Oh," my voice fell the tiniest bit. I hesitated. "Well, I..."

"Hey! Look! It's an island up ahead!"

I jumped at the sound of the Captain's voice shrilling in excitement from outside on the deck. "An island? Really?!" I exclaimed.

Eagerly, I ran towards the figurehead where Luffy was sitting on and the rest of the crew made their way to the front to check it out as well.

"Yeah! Finally!" he cheered with glee.

"Hold on, let me see." Nami marched up beside us, actively examining the log pose strapped to her wrist. She grinned. "There's no mistaking it. Cactus Island and this one here are definitely pulling against each other." the red head pointed. "Our next stop!"

"Alright!" I beamed. "It feels like forever since I've been on solid ground!"

"This is it! Our second island in the Grand Line!" the captain declared.

* * *

"I can see why they call this place Little Garden."

"I can't. What's little about it?" Zoro questioned while we all gaped at the view.

"Yeah, this island seems pretty harsh if you ask me. Why the cute name?"

Usopp trembled in his boots. "Y-Yeah. It looks like a jungle out there. Maybe we'd be better off skipping this one."

"Getting cold feet are we, Usopp?" I teased.

"What? No way! I'm a brave warrior of the sea, you know!"

"Mmhmm."

After being rather quiet all morning, Vivi finally spoke up. "We have to be careful... I can't help but remember the warning Miss All-Sunday gave us."

_"But your luck gets even worse. Because of the direction your log pose is indicating, you see... the name of the next island is Little Garden. We wont even need to lift a finger. You'll all be dead long before you reach Alabasta."_

"So, what? We might be attacked by giant monsters?!" Usopp's voice grew more hysterical than before.

"Who knows?" the captain chuckled, not appearing at all threatened by the idea.

"Listen, I'm sure we can make it to the next island without making it to shore on this one!"

"The only way to reset the log is to go ashore." Nami countered the sharpshooter.

"Not to mention we're in dire need of restocking our food supply." Sanji griped. "We didn't get so much as a sack of flower in the last town."

"Guys, there's our ticket in."

We all turned to look toward the area Zoro was pointing towards. There appeared to be a small river leading through the jungle into the island. Bingo. A couple of the men on board then started turning the ship in that very direction.

"You think they'll have a barbecue restaurant here?"

"We didn't travel all this way for barbecue!" the cook snapped at Luffy.

I added to his point. "I doubt there's much civilization on this island at all. It doesn't look like there's another human seen anywhere for miles."

"I thought the point of this visit was to get food."

Sanji had to resist the urge to smack his captain upside the head. "_Food. _As in supplies we're going to cook later? Geez, what are you thinking?"

Nami began pacing around the deck, her nerves growing more unsettled the deeper the Merry traveled down the river. "I don't know, Usopp might be right about this one. Just take a look at the gargantuan plant life here. I've never seen anything like it, not even in books."

Almost immediately after she said that, a loud squawking noise sounded throughout the whole area, causing everyone to flinch a little. It was obnoxiously loud, the palms of my hands covered my ears as tight as they possibly could. I groaned in discomfort. "Urgh..."

After it seemed to have stopped, I took a look around to see if everyone was alright. I noticed Nami looked to still be frozen in her defensive position, shielding herself for anything that might suddenly jump out at her. Sanji noticed too apparently, as he was swooning shamelessly over her.

"You're so adorable." he cooed, though it rose no reaction out of Nami.

Usopp however abruptly turned around to face the cook, batting his eyelashes mockingly.

"Thank you."

"That's not funny, I was talking to Nami!"

I had to stifle a fit of laughter threatening to bubble up and escape me. "It was pretty funny to me." I muffled while covering my grinning mouth.

"What was that screeching?!" Nami asked, still distressed.

Sanji smiled comfortingly. "It's alright, love. It's only a bird. Perfectly harmless, just like this jungle. Nothing to worry about."

While the blonde spoke, we all grew alarmed very quickly as the same bird he labeled as 'harmless' starting charging toward the back of his head.

Sanji eventually caught on to all our expressions. "...What's wrong?"

"Sanji! Behind you!" I warned just before the bird nearly swooped him out of the boat. The cook ducked just in time.

"What the hell's the matter with you, you damn bird?!" he growled in anger.

Luffy walked over to us to take a closer look at the giant bird. "Ooh, it's big. Could be tasty."

Once again, we were all interrupted by another loud noise. Although this one didn't sound like it came from any animal. It sounded a great deal more dangerous.

"Hear that? Is that the kind of noise you expect to hear in a normal jungle?" The navigator's voice shook.

Usopp panicked. "That sounded like a volcano erupting! We're all going to die!"

I looked around at the sudden hazy atmosphere around all of us. "The smoke of it's coming all the way over here... that means it must be close."

Nami shrieked. Gaining most of our attention, she pointed with trembling fingers toward a large feline creature stalking toward the ship."A tiger!"

"It's gigantic!" the sniper man gaped.

And then out of the blue the tiger went from ready to kill us to collapsing on the jungle grounds, revealing a large bloody wound on it's side.

"What?! Luffy, what just happened? I know normal, and this is definitely not it!" Nami ranted, trying to make some sense out of all this chaos happening one after the other. "Someone explain to me how a mammoth tiger can just keel over, covered in blood?"

Usopp stomped on the deck conclusively. "Log pose and food be damned, we're not setting foot on that island and that's final!"

Nami examined the log pose once more. "We can still reset the readings on the ship. We'll just sit tight until then."

"Right!" Usopp nodded vigorously.

"When that's done, we'll leave and never look back!"

"Right!"

Nami nodded. "Yeah. Great. We'll all just... stay here."

After a few moments of some actual peace and quiet for once, the captain began laughing giddily to himself.

"Sanji, go make lunch." he ordered.

"You want lunch?"

Luffy turned, a huge smile plastered over his face. "Yeah, and one more thing. Make it a great big pirate lunch with lots of meat and no veggies! I'm gonna need some more energy."

"Energy for what? What are you doing?!" Nami marched over to the captain, eyeing him threateningly. "You're not leaving here!"

Luffy only continued to laugh away, completely disregarding the last half of her words. "Oh, You know, fun stuff. Do you wanna come along?"

I couldn't help myself. I blurted out, "Oh, oh! Me! I wanna come!"

"Wh-What?!" Nami sputtered. "Myra, are you _serious?_"

"Sure I am, it doesn't seem that bad to me. This island just seems like a whole lot of crazy. I'm curious, I wanna take a closer look for myself." I replied, chuckling. If there was anything about me I still clung to, it's that I've always loved to explore places that were foreign to me; dangerous or not.

"Yeah, but-"

"I'll be fine, don't worry. I've dealt with scarier things." I smiled at the red head reassuringly.

Luffy snickered in excitement, and gave me a powerful high five which I returned with just as much feeling. "Alright!" he called to the cook once more. "Sanji, I'm starving!"

"Right. Be patient, I'll have it to you as soon as I can."

Vivi turned. "Say Luffy, would it be alright if I come along with you two?"

"Sure, sounds great!"

"No! Vivi, not you too!" Nami outbursted.

"Yeah. I'd rather not sit here with nothing to do but worry about my troubles." she smiled. "This will keep me busy 'till the log's reset."

The navigator sighed in frustration. "Out of the question, seriously! Luffy I'd expected, but not from you and Myra! It's way too dangerous for you out there!"

"I think you may be underestimating me a little." a smirk played on my lips.

Vivi spoke in a calming tone, whilst gesturing to her pet bird. "I'll be fine. Besides, I have Carue with me."

Carue let out a loud squawk, suddenly looking distressed.

Nami pointed to the bird. "Hey, somethings wrong, Carue doesn't look so good. Might be in shock."

I giggled at the birds rather humorous expression and pet him gently in an attempt to calm him down.

Sanji poked his head out from behind the kitchen door. "Vivi, if you go exploring you'll need something to eat. I'll pack you a lunch."

"Thanks! And while you're at it, could you fix something for Carue?"

"Of course. You just leave it to me. Oh, and Myra!"

"Yes?"

"I have your breakfast I made for you earlier packed up as well."

"Oh, right. Thank you!" I beamed.

After a few more minutes of waiting and watching the captain fidget around impatiently, Sanji was finished preparing our meals. The blonde smirked, a cigarette still wedged between his teeth.

"Now you're all set and ready to go. Two pirate lunches for Luffy and Vivi, one breakfast for Myra, and a special drink for Carue."

Luffy grabbed the lunch. "Heh. Thanks!"

Then with quick speed, all four of us hopped off the deck and sped off toward the depths of the vast jungle.

Vivi called back as we ran. "Well, see you guys later!"

"Bye!" I waved to the rest on the ship, wearing a smile as bright as the sun.

**XXXXX**

The jungle was sticky and humid, and wreaked of earthy textures even stronger than when observing the island from the ship. I wiped my brow swiftly as my feet continued to pound across the wet, swampy ground as far as they could take me. Keeping up with the others, my eyes scanned the surroundings in efforts to drink in every little detail. It was exhilarating.

Suddenly, my delight was interrupted when I felt my face slam harshly into what felt like the back of a man. Luffy. I groaned and rubbed my poor nose. "Ugh, Luffy! Warn me next time before you decide to stop running, will you?"

"Hm? Oh, sorry." the boy apologized halfheartedly, finding his attention more drawn towards something in the puddle by his feet.

Vivi halted her reins on Carue. "Hey, what's the matter?"

"Over here, check it out." The captain grabbed something from the mucky shallow water. It appeared to be some sort of snail... or was it a squid? I couldn't be sure, it wasn't like any creature I'd seen before. "It's a shellfish that looks like a squid. Shellfish squid!"

"How strange, it sort of resembles an ammanoid." Vivi observed.

"A very _striking _resemblance if you ask me..." I examined it with both wonder and confusion. "Weren't ammanoid's supposed to be extinct a long time ago?"

Every one of our thoughts had been interrupted at a sudden ear piercing sound. A screaming roar echoed throughout the entire jungle. I spun and immediately felt my breath catch in my throat at the sight of the creature my eyes met with. It towered generously over the trees, reaching high enough that I would think it'd be able to touch the clouds if it's arms weren't so tiny.

Luffy merely pouted his lip in thought. "Huh, that's weird, what's a sea king doing on land?"

My voice came out dry and horse. "Uh... Luffy. That's not a sea king, it's..."

"A dinosaur!" Vivi shrieked.

"Awesome!" The straw hat boy hopped up and down like a little kid in an amusement park.

My head started to ache trying to figure all of this out. "But... how is this even possible?! Dinosaurs are supposed to be extinct as well! All of these creatures, not one of them is supposed to be alive."

"No way, this is unreal!" Vivi shook her head in disbelief. "Somehow this island has been frozen in time, stuck in the age of the dinosaurs!"

"What? How could that even happen?"

"Travel in the Grand Line is so difficult, so no species ever migrated between islands and their unique eco-systems were preserved."

I stared back at the dinosaur in awe. "Amazing..."

Vivi began to pet Carue in an effort to keep him calm and stop the poor bird's trembling. "Some of these islands have developed extremely sophisticated cultures. Both biological and sociological. While others remain in a sort of evolutionary stagnation with little to no progression for several thousands, or tens of thousands, or... in this case, it seems... even millions of years."

I brushed my finger on my bottom lip; a habit of mine I had when deep in thought. "An island stuck in the prehistoric times. Is something like that really possible?"

Vivi nodded. "I can only assume that it's the random climates within the Grand Line that make this possible. I mean... what other explanation is there? We're standing on the island that predates mankind- Huh? Luffy?!"

The both of us cranked our heads in the direction of the boy.

"Dinosaur!" Luffy stretched his arms outward to the dinosaur, springing him off his own feet and transporting himself onto the dinosaur's back. I jumped back in surprise.

"Are you insane?!" Vivi yelled.

"Wh-What the..."

Vivi looked back to me frantically, her hair was frizzing out. From the heat or stress, I wasn't sure. "What is it?"

"His arms. Did you see that?"

"Oh, that? Luffy is a devil fruit user."

"_Oh_." I replied dumbly. I could have kicked myself in the head for not thinking of that possibility. Especially considering...

"Woah!" Luffy's outbursts interrupted my train of thought once again. "What amazing view. This is a perfect spot for our lunch!"

"We aren't here to have a picnic, Luffy! We need to keep moving!" Vivi was growing frustrated. Despite how reckless he was being, I couldn't help but giggle a little.

_BOOM!_

The ground quaked beneath our feet at the loud explosion. Another volcano eruption, I guessed.

"Huh? Oooh! They have active volcanos here!" The captain exclaimed in excitement. He then pointed toward something else that I couldn't see from where I stood. "Not only that, look! There's a mountain with huge holes in it."

Vivi groaned. Trying to persuade Luffy into doing what you wanted was damn near impossible, I noted. "It's dangerous up there, come down already! It may seem nice, but it's still a dinosaur!"

"We have something in common. We both love to eat! Besides, the weirdest thing I've seen all day is this mountain. It's really holely, come look!"

"Forget about critiquing the landscape, just get off that thing! Now!"

Finally, I spoke up. "Hey, Vivi. It's okay."

Vivi furrowed her brow at me in frustration."Huh? What do you mean 'it's okay'?!"

"I know what kind of dinosaur this is. Tall, really long neck, almost giraffe-like. It's an Apatosaurus. This type of dinosaur only eats plants, Luffy should be completely safe. The dinosaur shouldn't harm him at all, so long as Luffy doesn't do anything stupid to make it feel threatened."

"Hey, I wanna see that weird mountain. So if it's not too much trouble, would you mind taking me there?" The captain began speaking to the creature. He received no response. "Hey, you haven't listened to a word I've said, have ya? Gimme a ride, would you? It's over that way. That way!" Luffy pointed. When the dinosaur continued to ignore him, he stretched his arms around it's neck and forced it's head in the direction he wanted. Nearly choking the dinosaur and popping the leaves it was chewing on out of it's mouth in the process. "No, not over here, dinosaur. Over there!"

The dinosaur roared in distress.

"...Like that for example."

Vivi resisted the urge to face-palm. "Idiot!"

"Crap... I think It's calling it's friends!"

Luffy simply looked the dinosaur in it's large eye and said, "Oh, sorry about that. I guess I got a bit too carried away."

I swallowed hard. "I think it's about time we got out of here. Now."

I turned to Vivi, who only stared at the dinosaur. She looked frozen. When she wouldn't listen to me, I decided to look for a place to escape myself. And just like that, I spotted a small area peeking out between a messy bundle of plants and fallen branches. I swiftly and silently pushed myself on my feet and fell into hiding. I could hear the faint rumbling of what I assumed were the feet of a hoard of more dinosaurs coming to the Apatosaurus' rescue, and I fled.

Once I was sure I made it to a safer part of the jungle, I exhaled in relief. It was strange; After the things I'd seen, I should be wanting to go back to the ship right away. Any rational person would think the same. But I was... elated. I wanted to see what else I could discover in this jungle. The rush of adrenaline from seeing that ginormous dinosaur, and the thrill of running from a whole hoard of them about to rush after the three of us made me feel a sort of energy that I hadn't felt in a very long time. I missed this; my adventures.

I looked back in the direction where I left the others and considered going back for Vivi and Luffy, but decided against it. I wasn't sure why, but despite how foolish he is, I was sure Luffy was more than capable of taking care of himself _and _Vivi if they were really in a pinch.

He was a devil fruit user just like me, after all.

* * *

**Hello everyone! It's been a while. I had a bit of a mid-life crisis writers block thing which held me back from finishing this chapter for a bit, but i'm back now :'D I hope you enjoyed the chapter! **


	4. Show 'Em What You Got

**Chapter 4: Show 'Em What You Got**

* * *

**"Fragile  
Earth where  
Cracks in the temperature  
Keep it cool  
To give, you understand"  
Chapter's Soundtrack: Canvas - Imogen Heap**

* * *

_Little Garden: Jungle Grounds, 2:47 pm_

"Whew, time for a break..." I sighed to myself in satisfaction. My body plopped onto a collapsed tree trunk, and I shrugged my pink back pack off my sore shoulders. It had been a couple hours now since I'd separated from Luffy and Vivi, and I'd spent those past hours actively hopping about from different areas in the jungle. Panting heavily, my ankles burned the second I relieved them from the pressure of standing up. Things always ended up like this when I got myself absorbed in a task. I had a bad habit of forgetting everything else in the world for too long; my bodily comfort included. This incredible sense of focus was both a blessing and a curse. Grinning to myself in amusement, I popped the lid of my bag open to retrieve the meal Sanji made for me earlier.

"Look; as you can see, mine is bigger."

As if summoning the man on cue, I froze at the sound of the cook's voice; muffled off somewhere in the distance.

"Moron! This competition's about weight. How much meat we bring in! Not the length of the beast. And mine is obviously way beefier than yours!"

Another familiar voice. The swordsman must have been with him too, I thought.

More importantly, what in the _world_ were they talking about? My eyes grew wide and I had to fight off the heat of embarrasment threatening to spill over my face as my mind drew to rather... suggestive conclusions.

I cautiously followed their voices until I stood face to face with the two men, interrupting what appeared to be a normal, every-day little sqwabble (much to my relief).

"Zoro? Sanji?"

There was a brief stare-off, then Sanji answered first. "Myra? What a pleasant surprise to see you~!"

"Where's Luffy and Vivi?" Zoro questioned me, his voice filled with cynicism. "What are you doing by yourself?"

"What are you guys doing off the ship?" I countered.

"Uh, well..." The blonde started, but was promptly cut off by the swordsman's voice.

"I don't see why it's any of your business, but this idiot cook here thought he could beat me in a contest to see who could bring back a more meaty dinosaur, and he doesn't want to accept the fact that I so obviously beat him."

"What'd you just say?!"

"You heard me, I don't need to repeat myself!"

"Oh boy." I muttered, standing among the men awkwardly. "Uh, guys, hey, let's not fight about this alright? Just calm down."

"Ha!" the cook laughed. "Who cares how husky your dinosaur is. All that matters is the amount that can be cooked, and that thing's all bones. You're carrying maybe four pounds of meat there."

"That thing you're lugging around is nothing but muscle and skin."

I could almost feel the flames of their anger while they butted heads, like two wild animals challenging one another's pride. I raised my hands frantically, yet keeping my voice level. "Let's try and talk this over like adults, shall we? This is kind of a stupid thing to be arguing about."

Sanji grunted in frustration. "This is pathetic. I'm not gonna waste my time arguing with you."

_Didn't I just say that? It's like they don't even know I'm still here... _

"Tell you what; I'll go capture another beast just to shut you up."

The swordsman huffed. "Yeah, well if you're going after a different one, then so am I. I wont let you cheat me out of my win because of a dumb technicality!"

Out of the blue, the three of us stopped and turned our attention on the volcano that erupted yet again. After a couple hours of putting up with its spontaneous combustion, it's loud booming was beginning to become less and less startling.

Sanji shot a look back to the swordsman. "Alright. The next eruption from that volcano will signal the end of the competition. You have until then to secure your prey and return to The Going Merry."

"I can handle that, you're on."

"Hey, wait a minute!" I tried to stop them, but the two of them were already long gone, running off down separate paths in the jungle. I just stood there alone in bitter amazement.

_Invisible. I'm completely invisible._

With a heavy sigh, I was about to return to my resting place, when yet again I was stopped by another voice. This one was _loud, _and power behind the shout was unlike anything I'd heard before.

"I HAVE FORGOTTEN THE REASON FOR OUR BRAWL!"

Now _that _startled me. As if that wasn't enough, the voice was followed by the most deafening clash reverberating throughout the jungle island. My hands squeezed over my ears and the entire ground rumbled underneath my feet. I nearly stumbled to the ground.

Once the ringing in my ear drums faded, I let my hands fall back to my sides. I could still hear the clashing far past the lengthy palm trees that towered above my petite form, followed by a rhythm of the powerful stomping of feet. It sounded almost like a duel.

"What is going on...?"

* * *

_Little Garden: Jungle Grounds, 2:59 pm_

Once again running through the untamed jungle, I furthered myself toward the noise. The closer I got, soon enough I found the answer to my questions; but what I saw seemed unbelievable.

Two men; enormous, tall, giant men, slaying each other with the biggest battle axes, swords, and shields I'd ever seen. I heard about giants. Mythical creatures, feared by all humans, _Jack and the Beanstalk, _and whatever else... but they were just that. _Mythical _creatures. Or at least, they were supposed to be. I never would have actually believed they were real. And yet, there they were; swinging their weapons forcefully and roaring battle cries at volumes you'd never hear come from any human's vocal chords.

I continued to gape at the scene until something else brushed past the corner of my eye. Something much smaller, but just as unusual as the giants I'd discovered. A woman. A blonde, fair skin woman with brilliantly bright blue eyes. That wasn't the strange part, however. What surprised me was the fact that she was floating around in the sky. Floating, with her little yellow umbrella, almost like a fairy. Perhaps she was a devil fruit user?

The girl cackled.A bubbly, yet tainted cackle that sounded almost as cruel as it did innocent. "I've got a great view from up here!"

"They're gonna see you, Miss Valentine! Now get down here!" Another man called from my level. Quickly, I hid behind some nearby foliage. Who were these people? They didn't exactly look like shipwreck survivors. I decided to eavesdrop on the pair, my eyes voyaging through the web of trees.

"Oh, don't be so jittery, Mr. 5." the woman, Miss Valentine, gestured to the giant's battling from above. "You see, they're completely absorbed in the fight down there. They won't notice me."

"Just come down already!"

"Okay, okay." The lady gradually sank to the ground, next to Mr. 5. He was all dark skin with messy mops of dreadlocks hanging from his scalp; a polar opposite to his pale, bleach blonde partner.

"Now, behave yourself. This is a 200 million berri job here."

"Of course. Though, I'm not really crazy about this. What Mr. 3 wants us to do."

Mr. 5 lowered his head, dropping his voice a few octaves. "I know. Come on, now."

I kept my gaze pressed on the pair as the lady followed him out. It was obvious these guys were trouble. I retreated from the bush I hid myself behind and followed after them silently, my footsteps as light as a feather.

* * *

_Little Garden: Candle House, 3:35 pm_

He looked odd, this man they called Mr. 3. His skin held a sort of sickly tinge to it, with tight wrinkles adorning his face. He wore a rather nerdy pair of blue rimmed glasses, and the sort of clothing you'd imagine a snooty, pompous noble would be wearing during a 'leisurely' stroll. The strangest thing about him was his hairstyle.

Let's just say that when they called him Mr. 3, they called him that for a reason.

He was sitting casually in a chair while observing his new visitors, Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine. There was another person in there as well. A seemingly quiet little girl. I found myself a window ledge to duck under, looking in on the group from outside the unique building. My lips pouted in puzzlement once my fingers met with the smooth, slightly greasy texture of the exterior.

_What is this house made from, anyway? Wax? _

Mr. 3 finally spoke. "The key to winning any game is to know your opponents state of mind. For now, we have succeeded in confusing our enemy. They are no doubt wondering about the mysterious bomb that we delivered." he explained as he began pouring some tea into a cup. "And about the identity of their invisible enemy. Our first target was the long-bearded giant, Dorry. But I knew of course that it would be nearly impossible to finish him off. But the damage done to his stomach by the bomb must have been considerable. Now we can sit here enjoying our tea while relaxing, and wait for the next duel to start."

_Dorry? That must be the name of one of those giants..._

"So we stay in the background and let the giant kill off the injured one." Mr. 5 finished the other man's thought. To which Mr. 3 chuckled in reply.

"Yes, that's exactly right."

"That's certainly an indirect method."

Mr. 3 passed the tea around to his accomplices, his voice turning smug. "Again, you have to consider your enemy. Warriors like these two operate in much the same way as wild boars. They can be intimidating and head-on fight, but they don't have the brains to think beyond their immediate circumstance. So why bother going after them directly, when you have the intelligence to destroy them indirectly?"

My eyebrows knitted together in confusion. I was having a rather hard time trying to piece together why a suspicious group of people, who referred to each other in weird codenames, would need to attack some random giant on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. The very idea didn't make much sense to me.

"And just what are we supposed to with the Straw Hat gang?"

_Oh. _That can't be good.

"'Straw Hat gang?'" Mr. 3 lifted an eyebrow in question. "Oh, you're talking about the little brats who found out the boss' secret."

I watched intently as I witnessed Mr. 3 set down a series of photographs. One of each of the Straw Hat crew members, with the addition of Vivi. "We can start by luring them out one by one. The order doesn't matter, really." The man grinned devilishly. "Let's start with the one closest to my tea set. I have a personal motto, you know. And that is 'big crimes via cheap tricks'. There are plenty of good ways to defeat any enemy, all without fighting."

I could feel beads of sweat forming at the peak of my hairline. _This is bad. I have to go back and warn them!_

My thoughts were cut off at the sound of another explosion from a distant volcano. This one made me jump, thanks to my current jittery nerves, and my head banged against the window ledge. Everyone inside the candle house turned their surprised glances at me, and I mentally cursed myself for giving away my position so easily.

_Damn volcano, thanks a lot!_

"It would seem we have an extra guest here with us."

I didn't think, I just charged. Sliding my body through the window, I planted myself on my feet and prepared to strike. The chance to sneak away was long over. I lunged myself at Mr. 3, but he dodged my attack.

"My, My. A little hostile, aren't we?"

Mr. 5 stepped in. "I can take care of this. Miss Valentine, get ready."

The blonde lady smirked viciously. "Right."

I crouched to my knees and got myself into a proper battle stance, taking a deep, steadying breath. _Relax. Keep your mind focused..._

The dark skinned man, Mr. 5, pulled out some small tick and flicked it in my direction. It appeared harmless, but I wouldn't let myself be fooled. Soon after, I was surprised to see it tremble and explode dangerously close to my face. I was quick enough to roll away from the explosion just in time, but the detonation caused a sharp, jagged piece of wood from the nearby chair Mr. 3 was once sitting in to ricochet off and cut my leg. I hissed.

But I didn't have time to be in pain. I looked above me to see Miss Valentine plunging at me from above with an unusually heavy force. The mental gears in my mind coming to a sudden stop, I decided on my next move. I spread out my arms and raised them above me, at Miss Valentine. Exposing my palms , I made sure I kept my fingers splayed apart. She was very quickly dropping closer to me, and by the time she was maybe a couple feet away, I smirked the tiniest bit.

_It's game time. _

A clear, swirling energy formed at the base of my hands.

_Show them what you can do, Myra. _

_"_Wind Slash!"

I clawed against the air between us mercilessly with my hands, dragging them out into a curved, downward line. A powerful force of wind followed my trail, and caught the woman in it's current. Miss Valentine yelped in surprise as her body flipped and her face crashed hard into the wax floor in front of me; her heavy weight body drilling deep cracks and crumbles into the candle-made floor.

I was the lioness, and she was my prey.

"You're a quick little rabbit, aren't you? I wonder, how well can you manage to bend your way out of _this?_" Mr. 3 commented, readying himself to attack me from his long range. A white, goopy substance shot out from his fingers. I dodged again, and tilted my head back quickly only to see the substance harden on the wall behind me. Wax. The very same wax this house must be made from.

"So you're a devil fruit user, too..." I breathed, adrenaline pumping through my veins.

Mr. 3 didn't answer, he only shot more of his wax at me. I swerved my body, ready to dodge again, but this time I wasn't so lucky. Some of the wax got ahold of one of my wrists, and the weight of it was abnormally heavy. Once it hardened, it pinned my arm to the floor. I struggled against it at once, my heart hammering in my chest.

"What the- Argh!"

My teeth clenched in frustration, and in my awkwardly bent down position, I turned my head to growl at Mr. 3. But the wax man wasn't there anymore, no. Instead, I stared face to face with the mysterious little girl. She'd been so quiet the entire time, not even moving from her tea set, or bothering to attack me like the others. I stared back at her anxiously, almost urging her to speak, to move, to do something. But the creepy girl only stared at me, at the whole scene, as if it were some show. All of a sudden, I could sense a strong force coming from the other side of me. I cranked my head the other way, and my large, blue eyes met with Mr. 5's focused, able ones. He was too close to me now, I couldn't move in enough time. Now, it was my turn to be the hunted. His fist came hurtling towards my face.

That was the last thing I saw before I blacked out.

* * *

_Little Garden: Jungle Grounds, 4:28 pm_

My eyelids felt heavy when they finally peeled open.

"Ungh... what..?"

I could smell the mud and feel the hot, muggy air sticking to my skin. I must have been outside in the jungle again somewhere. My head spun, and I struggled against my fuzzy vision, eyes squinting against the harsh sunlight that blinded me equally as much. After a few more seconds, the blurry fog dispersed and I could see clearly again. I looked down my body, examining it. Nothing appeared to look too beaten up, but my hands were bound by more of that candle man's annoyingly heavy wax. Alternatively, my back felt lighter than it did before, signalling to me that my back pack along with my precious breakfast that I _still _hadn't eaten were now history. My cute lacey yellow t-shirt was covered in mud stains as well, much to my disappointment. Struggling to lift my aching head, I was surpsised to see a large figure laying across from me. He wore a viking style helmet along with a chest plate, gauntlets, and other pieces of armor. His massive hands were bound by a block of wax much bigger than mine.

"You... you're one of those giants I saw earlier."

The giant didn't answer me. His eyes flicked to me for a split second before he looked back over his own wax cuffs, jerking his arms and hands violently against them in an effort to break free. I tried to do the same, but it rendered me useless.

_Crap! It's no use, I can't move my hands and legs at all._

A new figure stepped in before the giant; The one keeping us hostage, Mr. 3. The giant roared in anger at the sight of his ugly face. "Damn you!"

Mr. 3 laughed in his face. "Struggling is pointless. Once my candle jacket solidifies, it becomes as hard as iron and it's impossible to break through."

"You..." I snarled at the man. His eyes fanned over me, wearing the same expression one would when spotting a stain on their clothes.

"Hmm? Oh, I'd nearly forgotten you were here. How are those little accessoriesI made for you working out?"

"Cut the snarky crap." I spat. "Who the hell are you? Why are you targeting the Straw Hats?"

"_Oh, _and you're feisty too. I wonder what else you'll surprise me with."

_Oh, trust me. I've got plenty of surprises for you. _I thought bitterly.

"Come to think of it, I don't believe we have your picture among our files. I wonder, what connection do you have with these fools that has your interest so piqued, hm?"

"Answer my question."

Mr. 3's grin quickly faded at my persistance. He left my words hanging in the air for a long moment before turning his back on me, waving his hand flippantly as he spoke. "Very well, I suppose there's no harm in telling you at this point, what with the situation you're in. Allow me to properly introduce myself; I am Mr. 3, of the Baroque Works agency."

"Baroque Works? You mean that corrupt bounty hunter organization I've heard so much about?"

_"You see, similar to your situation, I infiltrated a bounty hunter organization by the name of Baroque Works in hopes of finding out information."_

"You guys... you're the one who's behind all this, aren't you? You're the ones targeting Vivi!"

"That weak little girl trying to play the 'highborn hero' for her pathetic little sand country?" Mr. 3 grinned brutally. "Yes, that's us indeed."

The giant shot pure daggers at him.

"Oh, Don't glare at me like that, it's positively terrifying. You should be celebrating, shouldn't you? At long last, your battle with Dorry the blue ogre has come to an end. You fought on this island for a hundred years for your precious pride. Shouldn't such a long lasting battle make victory all the more sweet? I mean, really, it's an accomplishment." the wax man flashed an evil smile. "Even if it required a little outside help. Come on, give me a little smile-"

"Shut up! What would you know about this?!" The giant shouted, his booming voice causing me to jolt. Mr. 3 responded by breaking out into hysterics.

"Of course the real victor in all of this is me. The bounties placed on your heads long ago remain in place to this day. Today you're worth 200 million berries. Quite a handsome sum."

"Bounties?"

"_Big_ bounties. I feel as if I recovered a long lost treasure."

"What?!" my voice flared. "_That's _why you did this? You corrupted this poor giants hundred-year-long sacred duel just to get a measley 200 million berries?!"

"Well, there's that. I guess you could also say we were a tad bored. It's a bonus prize, really. What we really came here for is princess Vivi."

I twisted around in my wax cuffs angrily. "A _bonus_ prize?! You sure talk big for a guy who doesn't have an ounce of courage in his bones; hiding behind your precious intellect to win all your battles for you. Without that arrogant, cocky brain of yours, you're not so tough!"

The man didn't respond right away. First, he took his sweet time making his way over to me, only to step hard on my arm. I yelped out in pain.

He bent his face down more to my level and spoke lowly. "Oh, really? Shall I remind you who's the one captured here?"

I glared hard at him, doing everything I could to ignore the hard pressure of his weight on my limb. I wouldn't let him break me. "Go to hell." I hissed through clenched teeth.

"So that's what you're after, Mr. 3."

A new voice joined the scene. I recognized that voice. Following Mr. 3's gaze ahead of me, Vivi stood before us.

"Vivi!" I called out to her eagerly. But she wasn't alone. The other two Baroque Works members had her clutched in their firm hold. I watched as Vivi squirmed in Miss Valentines tight grip.

"Here's the girl." The blonde smiled smugly.

"Alabasta's sneaky spy."

"Oh, no, Vivi..." I frowned. They'd already got ahold of her, but where was Luffy? I gulped, silently praying that he didn't get eaten by those dinosaurs.

"It's about time. I was positively sick of waiting."

"You're full of nothing but dirty tricks! I can't believe you! Putting a bomb in Dorry's alcohol was low, even for you!" Vivi preached.

The other giant appeared shocked. "What? The barrels... You put something into the drinks that I gave Dorry?!"

"You're an annoying little girl, giving away our secrets like that." Mr. 3 sighed. "But that's alright, there isn't anything he can do about it anymore anyway."

The snooty man readied himself in a sort of position that signaled that something bad was about to happen. Shouting out a certain command, I watched on as the waxy substance began forming at the base of his fingers.

"Candle Lock!"

"Vivi, get out of the way, quick!" I called, but it was too late. Miss Valentine kept her grip tight on the blue haired princess while Mr. 3 produced a block of wax around her feet, effectively bounding her legs together. Losing her balance, she tipped over onto the ground.

"Mr. 5, bring the swordsman and the other girl. It's time to begin."

My blood ran cold. _What..? Don't tell me they got ahold of Zoro and Nami, too..._

Mr. 3 began generating even more wax, but this time, his strange hair shaped like the number three started to flame at the tips. He shouted another command, and I watched in shock while he made what looked like a ginormous platform. It was shaped like a flat cylinder, and there was a huge pillar in the middle, with a giant bowl shape sitting on top.

"What the hell is that..?"

Vivi swalled hard. "So this is what Mr. 3 is capable of..."

"What is that thing?" The giant questioned, as if any of us knew the answer.

Mr. 5 returned with Nami and Zoro, carelessley throwing the both of them on the damp ground. "Here are the others."

Zoro grunted as he hit the floor, and was surprised to see me when he turned his head the other way.

I deadpanned. "So, was winning that contest really worth all this trouble?"

He didn't answer me. Just scowled.

"It's just sad," Mr. 5 stalked up to us, pinning Zoro's head to the ground with his foot. "Idiots like these should have been a hell of a lot easier for me to catch. Should have caught 'em the first time, how embarrasing."

"No need to be ashamed. You can't help the fact that you're weak after all."

I snorted, murmuring to myself. "You're one to talk."

"Now please just hurry and get the candles set up." Mr. 3 ordered the other agent.

"Candles..? Nami spoke at last. She sounded tired, worn out. The red head gasped when she saw the platform. "What is that thing?!"

"Nothing good." Vivi bowed her head in shame. "I'm sorry, you guys."

"But, Vivi, what happened? I thought you were with Luffy!"

"I was, but now..."

"What about you, Nami? Weren't you on the ship with Usopp?" I inquired.

"If you're wondering about the Straw Hat, I saundered that little runt myself." Mr. 5 spoke up, his foot still grinding away at the green haired's skull. "He didn't put up much of a fight, either."

Zoro glared back at the man for a brief moment, before he let his expression relax into a sardonic smirk. "Yeah, right."

It wasn't long after that before the four of us were hauled onto the wax platform. I tensed at the feel of Mr. 5's rough hands, and growled angrily.

"I swear, when I get out of here, you're going to pay for this."

"Yes, yes. Keep talking. Those empty threats will only make you look more foolish." Mr. 3 dismissed me. I was getting far past fed up with that concieted snob. I nearly tripped and fell on the slippery wax with the way Mr. 5 thrust me the rest of the way on the platform.

The four of us stood there dumbly for a while, like lambs to the slaughter. Then the bowl shaped dome on top of the pillar started to spin. Mr. 3 laughed menacingly, and Zoro crossed his arms.

"I guess this is what it's like to be a candle stuck on a birthday cake."

"Is now really a good time to be making jokes?" I huffed.

Nami pointed to the pillar. "Guys, what's that spinning up there?" She tried to move to get a better view, then frowned at her feet when neither one would budge. "I can't move. Great."

Experimentally, I tried shifting my feet as well. She was right. The soles of my shoes were somehow sticking to the platform, like they've been molded into place.

"It's not surprising to me that they don't want us moving around. That's what captured means." Zoro replied bluntly.

My chest felt of led and my stomach held a slight queasy sensation stirring within. I could feel myself slowly starting to panic. Taking a deep, slow breath, I attempted to calm my nerves. Thankfully I managed to force my voice out calm and even. "Well, despite the situation, it's relieving to see none of you are dead."

"Oh yeah, there's a silver lining!" The navigator snapped.

"But seriously guys, how in the hell are we going to get out here?"

I watched the swordsman scrape one of his swords against the wax by his feet. "Damn, this stuff's hard. And I can't put much strength behind my swing from this angle."

"Something's falling." Vivi pointed, leading my eyes to look above our heads.

"Is this... more wax? Strange. What on earth is he plotting?" I wondered aloud. Mr. 3 broke out into more laughter, much to my irritation.

"I do hope you enjoy my candle service. You may have noticed the wax flakes that are falling from above. You'll eventually be covered and turned into wax figures." he stated, fixing his bow tie. "You'll become perfectly life-like statues for my collection, something that even I couldn't achieve on my own. I will literally capture your spirits and encase them forever in wax shells. It will be a true masterpiece. You will die for my art."

The thought of this man wanting to trap us alive in his own wax was enough to send countless chills tumbling down my spine.

"I don't think so, you freak! I have no intention of dying for whatever it is you consider art!" the red head shouted, and turned to the large form below us. "Hey, giant! Why are you laying there doing nothing when you could be beating the crap out of this candle guy!?"

"Now he is gonna make one huge statue." the swordsman observed. I fought the urge to giggle, having to remind myself of how much trouble four of us were actually in.

"You can try to convince him, but your efforts will be useless." the candle man interrupted. "He's a little blue at the moment. You see, he just realized how unfairly he won his last fight, and he's lost the heart to celebrate! He killed his dear friend Dorry with whom he had fought with for one hundred years."

"Which was entirely your fault in the first place." I snorted coldly, making the man lose his cool for a moment.

"That's enough out of you! Ahem, the point is, Dorry was injured. But he didn't notice. Just imagine how much pain Dorry must have been in, he didn't stand a chance! You did shed a few tears though, perhaps you were crying for your friend? Now it's no use. There's no undoing it, he's dead! And, you see, its no one else's fault but yours!"

_Right. Sure it was._ I thought. Despite the man's lies, however, I could tell Mr. 3's cruel words were getting to the giant. My face crinkled glumly as I saw the big guy looking more defeated than angry. He stopped struggling against the wax cuffings so much, and laid there still, unmoving.

"...I should have seen it. I knew something strange was going on. From the moment we first began to fight, I knew Dorry was hiding something. But I couldn't tell what it was."

"You say that you knew it? You're lying! If you knew something was wrong, why didn't you stop the fight? Why didn't you give him a chance to rest? I didn't see one tread of pity in the way you ruthlessly cut him down-"

"You know _nothing _about honourable duels!" the giant snapped. "Someone like you could never understand my tears! What do you know about the way of Elbaf?! You think that I would shame a warrior who hid the fact that he was weakened, so that he could continue to fight?! ONLY A TRULY WARRIOR WOULD GO TO SUCH LENGTHS, AND SUCH A MAN ISN'T INTERESTED IN PITY!"

The candle man could only shiver pathetically as the giant raged and roared. Bit by bit, his own words filled his big heart full of fighting spirit, and I sent silent encouragement to him when he tried breaking free of the wax trapping him in once more.

"Now, I know what really happened. And I must do something about it! I'm going to finish this with my own two hands!"

The ground beneath him almost quaked as the giant squirmed and rolled his large body with great persistance. After some time, I could have sword I'd heard a crack; and unbelievably enough, all three of us watched in awe as the giant screamed out a fierce cry, miraculously managing to escape the thick casing.

My heart leapt in my chest. "Unbelievable... he actually managed to break free!"

The giant was in his own world as he thrashed around his surroundings with his newfound freedom. He lunged toward Mr. 3 in a blind rage. "That's the least I could do for Dorry! He was a great warrior, and my dear friend-"

All too quickly, the giant stopped in his tracks when a huge, vicious explosion interrupted his speech.

This time, for once, it wasn't from a volcano.

Nami gasped in horror when we watched the giant collapse to the ground, unconsious. "Broggy!"

Immediately, I knew who the culprit was. All three of our eyes turned to glare at Mr. 5, who only tisked in annoyance.

"His chattering was getting on my nerves."

"Big fool." His accomplice, Miss Valentine, let out a cold laugh.

Once he realized the odds were back in his favor, Mr. 3 finally stopped shivering pathetically and returned to his regular, over confident stance. "It seems that I miscalculated. I forgot how freakishly strong these dumb giants can be. It looks like you're going to require more complete restraints." He readied his hands, producing more wax and coating it all around Broggy's form. This time, he made a sort of body cast rather than cuffs alone.

"And now for the finishing touch, take THIS!"

I didn't even bother looking at the others reactions once I saw what appeared to be four large, wax spears raining down on Broggy from above. Each spike pierced mercilessley into each of the giants hands and feet, making him howl in pain loud enough to make a person deaf.

"You really are dispicable!" Vivi screamed, horrified at the whole scene. I think it was fair to say that I'd seen enough, too.

Above us, the spinning top suddenly began spinning even faster, effectively making more wax sprinkle over the three of us. I heaved, beginning to weaze uncomfortably.

Nami coughed, clutching onto herself. "My chest is starting to hurt. The wax is starting to get into our lungs. At this rate, he's gonna turn us into wax from the inside out."

"That's it, make it look like you're in as much pain as possible, that's perfect! Expressions of agony are what I seek to achieve in my art. The finished product will be simply spendid. You must die filled with terror."

Trying to hide her growing panic, the navigator called out the candle man, struggling her words out through coughing fits. "This is what you call art, you creepy weird haired freak?! You guys are gonna regret this! You're gonna pay for what you did to Broggy and Dorry, and what you're trying to do to us!"

"Yell and scream all you want to, little girl. No one can help you now."

"This isn't fun anymore, I _really _want out of here...!" I whined. In efforts to prevent the wax from invading my lungs faster, I did the best I could to take smaller, shorter intakes of breath.

But really, was there even any point in trying to stay alive? I tried desperately to think of a way around this, wanting to believe there was still a chance we could escape and live... but I had nothing. All of us were trapped, stuck in this wax, and the others were nowhere to be found. My legs and arms were completely paralyzed by this point, it wouldn't be long before my entire body couldn't move. There was no one free to help any one of us. Even the giant was out of comission.

My teeth grinded together in frustration. "Dammit all... how the hell are we going to get out of here?!"

Nami stared at her partly coated fingers in terror. "This isn't good! My hands wont move, can't we do something? I don't wanna die like this!"

"My body's already beginning to turn stiff." Vivi began to whimper, tears threatening to form in her eyes. "What are we supposed to do...?"

"Zoro, do something!"

In all honesty, I'd nearly fogotten Zoro was even here with us. He hadn't spoken a word the last several minutes, and he barely moved a muscle (as if he could move much at all in this situation, anyway).

"Hey giant." his deep, baritone voice called out to Broggy. "You can still move, right?"

A small grunt was all he got back, but it was enough to make the swordsman smirk in confidence, pulling one of his katanas from it's sheath.

"Good. So can I. I say we take him down together. What do you think?"

My face crinkled in confusion. "What? How exactly do you intend to do that when your wedged into the ground like this?"

Green hair gestured toward his legs, pointing his keen-edged blades toward the two limbs. It took me a minute to fully process what he meant, before I felt my heart stop.

The crazy fool.

"Hold on a second, what are you doing?" Nami gasped. "Are you-?"

"Yeah."

"Quit messing around, you're not going to cut your own legs off!"

"I'm not messing around at all." Zoro replied matter-of-factly. "It's the only way to get us out of this situation. Are you in or out?"

Vivi shrieked wildly. "Are you insane?! No way! Even if you get down from here, you wont get far without legs!"

"Zoro, look. I wanna get out of here and knock that pompous douche up as much as you do," I started. "But come on. Let's try to be reasonable here."

"There's no way to know for sure until we try. So, are you saying you'd rather sit here and die?"

My thoughts sputtered, forgetting whatever it was I was going to say after hearing his surpising reply.

"Why should we make it easy for those guys to kill us? Dying quietly without a struggle doesn't make you any less dead, right?"

I only found myself staring back at him pathetically, unsure of what to say. Despite how crazy his idea was, I couldn't help but develop a new respect for the swordsman in that very moment. I had to give him credit; he was keeping it together better than any of us.

"The girl was right. This guy's insane." Mr. 5 muttered to the wax man.

"He's bluffing. There's no way he would do something as crazy as that. He's just trying to act tough so his friends will feel better."

Beneath us, I heard Broggy begin to chortle. "Alright, I'm in. Let's cut them to pieces."

"You're not serious, are you? How are you planning on fighting them afterward?" Nami pressed. Zoro still didn't waver.

"Who knows? But..." he smirked dangerously. "...I plan to win."

"Wait! I'll fight with you!" The princess blurted out, prompting both me and Nami to turn to her in disbelief.

"What?!"

"Vivi, no!" I urged. "We don't need anyone else losing their limbs!"

"Good. Get ready." Zoro ignored the both of us, mentally preparing himself.

"Now, lets go!" Broggy barked. My eyes flashed on Mr. 3, who appeared much less confident than he did a moment ago.

"Don't be foolish! What could you hope to accomplish?!"

The giant cried out as he struggled his impaled hands against the wax spears. Zoro turned his swords to their sides, hovering them both over the bottoms of his calves. My breath came out in short, distressed puffs as I watched his unnervingly serious expression. He was really going through with it. I could hear the navigator's hysterical shouting, but it sounded muffled, distant. I wanted to scream, too. I wanted to stop him, but my words wouldn't come.

And then in an instant, Zoro raised his swords, and jabbed them inwards on himself. I shut my eyes.

"aaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

Green hair halted his blades. All four of us froze at the new, screaming voice coming from the distance. Hesitantly, I peeled my eyes open just in time to see three figures flying toward us. As they came closer into view, I could feel my anxiety steadily melting away.

It was Luffy. Luffy, Usopp, and Carue.

I didn't get the chance to call out to them quick enough, though. They disappeared just as fast as they came in, whizzing directly past the giant candle platform we were all prisoners of. Luffy called out to the Baroque Works members as the three of them were being catapulted.

"HEY! When I get back I'm gonna kick your asses!"

I bursted into laughter when I heard them all crash into a distant tree behind us.

"Let's get'em, Usopp!" Luffy stated, the three of them quickly back on their feet.

"Yeah!"

"And bird.. guy!"

Carue squawked, and I beamed at them in relief once they came back into our view.

"Luffy! Man, are you guys a sight for sore eyes."

"Luffy! Usopp!" Nami exclaimed. Vivi greeted Carue as well, practically tearing up.

Usopp posed nobly in front of the giant. "We're here, Broggy! Don't worry, we'll pick up where you left off."

"Thanks, Usopp."

"Beat them beyond recognition!" Nami ordered in rage. "Show 'em expressions of pain and agony they won't soon forget!"

Luffy cracked his knuckles with purpose. "Oh, I'm going to. These guys messed up the best duel ever. They're in some serious trouble, and they're gonna answer to me."

"Hmm, So he has a serious side after all..." I hummed in pleasant surprise.

Mr. 3 scoffed at the captain. "So you're the one with the highest bounty in the East Blue? My, how low marine standards have fallen. It's almost tragic, really."

Luffy suddenly screeched, revelling in the candle man's obscure appearance.

"Is that your hair?!"

"You just shut up!"

"Dude, it's uh, on fire."

"Hush, you!" Mr. 3 snapped right back. Nami facepalmed.

"Yes, he has weird hair. Now could you break this pillar? We're about to turn into wax statues here!"

"Hmm?" Luffy observed the wax-raining contraption above us. "Oh, you guys in trouble?"

Zoro and I both commented in a sarcastic manner.

"Nope, no trouble at all."

"We're only kind of, you know, dying."

"Zoro, your legs!" Nami gaped, making all three of us look over. I gulped at the steady streams of blood pooling out from his ankles, seeping out from his loose, black pants.

"Yeah. I made it about halfway through, I'd say."

"And how exactly is that 'no trouble at all?!'"

"So Luffy, what do you think?" Zoro flashed his captain a charming smile. "Could you go ahead and take care of this pillar for us? I think I've done enough."

"And not to sound pushy or anything, but try to be quick about it please?" I added sheepishly. The straw hat boy grinned.

"Yeah, no problem." Luffy turned to Usopp. "I don't know what it is, but lets break it."

"Right! Lets do it. Usopp, the brave warrior of the sea, is ready to fight!"

Carue squawked out what I guessed would sound like a battle cry in bird language, while Usopp pulled out a green slingshot. Luffy flexed his hands eagerly, appearing almost excited about the whole ordeal.

"Hurry, will you?! We're dying here!"

And at the hands of the navigator's last frantic call, all hell had broken loose.

* * *

**You may have noticed the song lyrics at the beginning. Yeah, I've decided for this fanfiction that wherever there's a chapter with a major event involved, I'm going to include a song which I feel fits the chapter. In this case, the major moment would be Myra fighting for the first time in this story, weehooo! I feel like this song really fit the sort of inner body experience she has with herself when she fights. fave/follow/review if you like!**

**\- Natalie **


	5. Miracle After Miracle

**Chapter 5: Miracle After Miracle**

* * *

_Little Garden: Jungle Grounds, 5:30 pm_

It would seem that my blind faith in Luffy didn't go unchecked. Despite his semi scrawny appearance, the guy was practically a monster with the way he thrashed the agents around. His devil fruit abilities were incredibly fascinating to watch, so much so that I barely registered what Usopp was doing behind him. I couldn't tear my eyes away from him the second the dark haired boy began springing, stretching, and expanding his body in rather creative ways against Mr. 3's candle powers. The rubber man made fighting look easy.

That being said, he did face a few trials. Like getting himself caught in a block of wax. Yet he found his own way around his obstacles. Using the block of wax stuck on his feet, Luffy stretched out his arms around Broggy's helmet, and flung the bottom half of his own body against the pillar; shattering both the contraption, and the wax on his feet.

Admittedly a smart plan, though it would have worked out better for everyone had he thought it through completely. The spinning bowl still remained on the platform above the four of us, except now it was regrettably much closer, causing the wax to sprinkle on us even faster.

Despite these arising issues, the wax man was inevitably defeated by Straw Hat Luffy, and sent flying to god knows where in the depths of the prehistoric plant life of the jungle.

In all my experience fighting in the navy, I'd never seen any battle quite so captivating.

"YEAH! Amazing, that was amazing, Luffy! Wow, your captain really knows how to fight, doesn't he- uuuhh what the heck are you doing, Zoro?" I remarked, after finally tearing my eyes away from the fight to see the swordsman beside me.

"I'm dying in style." he replied simply, one hand raising a sword to the sky and the other braced onto his hip. Vivi gawked at me.

"How did you not notice his pose until now?!"

"Luffy! Hurry up and break this thing before we die up here!" Nami barked at her captain, who was standing around on his heels.

"Um, no." was all he replied with.

"I... what?" I muttered in disbelief. Examining him closer, I realized suddenly that he didn't appear to look as focused as he was a few moments ago when fighting Mr. 3. It might have been my mind playing tricks on me from inhaling so many candle fumes, but the man seemed... distant. Almost hypnotized. Nami shouted at him, frustrated.

"Quit joking around and hurry!"

"Nuh-uh."

"Quit being an idiot! Now's not really a good time!" Zoro spat. Vivi pleaded next to him.

"Luffy, please just do it!"

The captain took a long pause before talking back in this unnervingly dull tone of voice. "Not now. I... just don't feel like saving you."

"Luffy... what's wrong?" Nami questioned, her troubled voice coming out small.

The abrupt sound of crunchy food grinding together by a set of teeth caught my attention. We all turned our gaze to a small figure sitting on a picnic blanket beyond the captain.

"My colours trap."

It was the ominous little girl from the candle house. I hadn't even realized she was here.

I looked back to Luffy, and underneath his sandals lay a black, circular mark I didn't notice there before. "Hm, so she finally made her move..."

"Hey, Luffy!" Green hair called again. "There's no time to space out now. Do something about this already!"

"Yeah, I know."

"Then don't just stand there!"

"Come on, Luffy!"

Luffy ignored the girls orders."I know what I should do... but, I don't feel like it."

"Dammit, why do you keep saying that?!" Nami growled. "We're about to be turned into wax statues, do you understand me? We're going to die!"

"Yeah, but for some reason, I can't get motivated to help"

"What do you mean, 'can't get motivated?!'" we all snapped back in unison.

"Oof!"

My eyes met with Usopp's form in the distance, who was still in a strife against Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine. His body crumpled on the mucky ground from one of the man's attacks, before he managed to scramble to his feet again. I was expecting to see him have another go at striking him with his slingshot.

So imagine my surprise when I watched the sharpshooter make a direct one-eighty and bolt himself the hell out of dodge.

"What? Usopp! Where are you going? You can't just leave us here!" I called after him, he was too far away to hear me. I felt a growl sound in the back of my throat.

_Great. Just great. Now we're really screwed._

Vivi finally noticed the mark under Luffy's feet, and scowled."Miss Goldenweek's responsible. I know that this is your doing!"

"It's my colours trap: betrayal black. If you touch the paint, you'll want to betray your friends, no matter what they might say. Even if they beg and plead for help." the girl explained. Nami furrowed her brow.

"What's she talking about? I don't understand what's going on here."

"I'm just going on a hunch here," I started. "but I'm highly sure it has something to do with that weird mark Luffy's standing on."

Vivi nodded. "You're correct. She's a painter. She uses her paint to create different emotions. Each colour is a feeling. Her sense of colour is so complete, she can manipulate your mind. Just a splash of one of her colours, and you'll be under her control."

"Under her control? Well that's not good. That simple minded oaf is already too easy to control. The last thing we need is someone messing with his mind." the swordsman complained.

"Does that mean that all he needs to do is get away from the paint and he'll be okay?"

"That does seem like the easiest solution..." I commented.

"Luffy! Get away from there, quickly-"

"Don't." Vivi stopped the navigator. "Luffy, listen! Whatever you do, please don't step outside the black circle, alright? I'm begging!"

"What are you saying?!" Nami outburst. It didn't take long for me to figure out the princess' motives.

"Shh, Nami. Just let her talk."

"What?! But-"

"We don't want you to save us, Luffy. Please stay away from us!" Vivi interrupted the red head yet again.

"No way." Luffy denied, stepping off the black circle.

"I get it now." the mental light bulb went off in Zoro's head. "We just needed to say the exact opposite of what we wanted him to do."

I nodded, then anxiously looked back to the captain, relieved to see regular emotion returned back to his features.

"Oh, hey. What... what just happened? I was acting really strange."

"Luffy! Help us now!" Vivi shrieked.

"Okay, I'm on my way right now!" the rubber man stepped forward, dangerously close to the black circle. I cringed.

"But please make sure to step around that black mark!"

He looked down. "What, this? Alright, sure."

Our efforts proved useless, however, when Miss Goldenweek began painting another mark. This time, it was directly on the man's back.

Out of the blue, Luffy clutched desperately onto his rib cage, obnoxious laughter rolling from his lips.

"Never mind, I just wanna laugh right now!"

"Oh, great..." I sighed, while the other three expressed their own resentment.

"LUFFY!"

"Moron!"

"What now?!"

"Colours trap again: laughter yellow." Miss Goldenweek flicked her paintbrush around in her tiny hands while Luffy fell to the floor in hysterics."You shouldn't have stepped out of the circle."

"Now it's on his clothing." the navigator observed. "Luffy, quick, take off your shirt!"

"I'd love to, really! But right now, I'm too busy laughing!"

Zoro groaned. "This is getting bad. If the wax keeps falling at this rate, we'll be lucky to stay alive for five minutes."

I frantically weighed out our options. "I'm not sure if saying the opposite of what we want will work this time... this is 'laughter', and not 'betrayal', after all."

Nami was about to say something when she was interrupted by someones berserk screaming. Staring ahead, Usopp and Carue broke through the line of trees and back onto the scene, with Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine tailing close behind them.

"Did you guys come here just to play tag?!" Zoro roared.

The sharpshooter blindly slammed into Luffy, somehow getting him to fall silent.

"Hey, he stopped laughing." I observed.

"Look!" Nami pointed at Luffy's bent over form, bringing the now distorted looking yellow mark into view. "When Usopp ran into Luffy, the paint smudged!"

"Geez, what's going on? I felt all weird again..." Luffy panted, pulling himself to his feet. "Hey, painter girl! Would you stop messing with me already?!"

"But you were having such a good time." the girl replied innocently. "Wasn't it funny?"

The captain's teeth ground together."Well yeah, it was kinda funny. But stop! I gotta see about breaking that pumpkin now!" he stretched his arms behind him, ready to fling them forward toward the bowl above us. "Gum Gum..."

Miss Goldenweek dipped her brush into her pallet, hastily painting a blood red mark on the ground. "Another colours trap... time for bull fight red."

Luffy's eyes blazed with power as he finished saying his command. "Bazooka!" and with full determination, he thrust both his arms forward...

...Right into the red circle.

"Just what were you aiming at?!" Zoro's face twisted in irritation.

"I just can't let you break it." Miss Goldenweek replied simply. "Mr. 3 wouldn't be happy about that at all."

"What'd you do?!" Luffy demanded.

"During a bull fight, a bull can't control his urge to attack the red cape. Likewise, you can't do anything now but attack that red circle. That's what I did."

"So in other words, he has the brain capacity of a land grazing animal." I pondered flatly. "Well, that's just wonderful, isn't it? This is it, guys. We're pretty much finished."

Luffy growled angrily at the little girl. "Okay, that does it! I'm mad now! Gum Gum... bazooka!" he thrust his hands forward again, aiming for the wax bowl. Once more, his own hands betrayed him.

"Having fun?" Miss Goldenweek spun her pallet around. Nami groaned.

"Oh, great. At this rate, he's never gonna be able to beat her. Now all of his strength is useless."

"Now to finish up, we'll mix the laughter yellow on your back with some sadness blue." the girl slapped said colour upon the captain's back.

"The last colours trap: tranquil green."

Luffy immediately seized his wrath, and I watched in horror as his face relaxed completely. Calmly, he moved away from the red mark and joined Miss Goldenweek on her little picnic blanket; sipping on some chamomile without a care in the world.

"LUFFY!" we all screamed at him. No answer. He wouldn't even so much as glance our way.

And just like that, the very last sliver of hope we held in our hearts had disintegrated. It was over.

"So, what happens now?" Nami's voice shook. Astonishingly, Zoro was laughing.

"See? I told you, you should have posed. But you wouldn't listen to me, and now it's too late. You're gonna die like that."

Vivi shrieked. "Are you really still talking about that?!"

"If I could move right now, I swear..." my eyes narrowed, though my voice didn't hold nearly as much feeling as I'd intended it too. My disapproval was vastly overshadowed by my fear.

The only thing I could hear was the loud hammering of my own heart, beating hard and fast underneath all the layers of wax encasing my chest, my legs, my entire body.

I didn't know how much longer it was after that, before I found myself without air, and my vision spiraled away from me.

* * *

_Little Garden: Jungle Grounds, 5:51 pm_

It was hot. _Really_ hot.

"Ah-! My skin, it's burning!" I coughed out through a thick cloud of heated smoke.

I froze.

"Wait..." I muttered through stunned lips, as I shifted my broiling, singed body around. "I... I can move again! It's a miracle! Nami! Vivi! Zoro!"

"We're here, don't worry." I heard Vivi's voice from behind me, and quickly I spun around; my eyes squinting through flames just barely making out the silhouettes of the two girls. I exhaled in great relief.

"I'm so glad you guys are alright... I was certain we were all goners."

"So did we." Nami stepped forward. "Now lets hurry up and get out of these flames. My insides feel like they're cooking."

It was only when she stepped forward that I realized that most of Nami's, Vivi's, and my own clothes had been incinerated off of our sweating bodies.

_Well, this awkward._

Despite the slightly embarrassing circumstances, I ignored the fact that my white, C cup bra was in full view, and ventured onward with the girls through the fire surrounding us. As we webbed through the flames crawling closer to an escape, soon I could make out the figures of two shadows.

"Okay, play time is _really_ over now."

"That voice... Miss Valentine!" I warned the others.

"I'm gonna break that scrawny little neck of yours into a million pieces!"

We all witnessed her form lift into the air.

"Ten thousand kilogram guillotine!"

Vivi broke into a run."Let's move. Hurry!"

The navigator and I followed after her, Nami pulling out a bo staff while I readied my hands into fists. The three of us leaped out of the fire and charged at the woman. Nami and Vivi attacked her with their weapons while I simply gave her a classic fist to the face. We sent Miss Valentine flying out of the way just in time to save Usopp from an unfortunate fate. The sniper remained still on the ground, gaping at our slightly scalded (and half-naked) bodies.

Nami smirked. "That was really hot. Couldn't you have thought up another plan?"

The man blinked. "You're being a little picky here, don't you think? Aren't you at least a little bit grateful?"

"You do have a point there, thanks."

"Hey, no complaints from my end." I coughed, wiping some ashes out of my eyes. They were watering up from the immense heat we'd just managed to escape, but I was alleviated all the same.

"It's amazing, I can't believe we're actually alive." Vivi breathed.

"Me neither, but..." my eyes scanned the flames behind us. "Where's Zoro?"

"Got out of the wax, did ya?" Mr. 5 approached us, pointing a large gun in our direction. "Well, I've had enough. We simply cannot afford to screw up our mission anymore."

"Hey, Mr. 5!" Usopp aimed his slingshot at the agent. "Special attack: exploding star!"

Mr. 5 opened his mouth, caught the sharpshooter's dangerous capsule in his throat, and oddly enough, ate it like it was an appetizer. "You fool! Haven't you figured out that your pathetic explosives won't affect me at all? They're nothing to an exploding man."

"So how about _my _explosives?" I asked, taking the agent by surprise when he finally realized I'd snuck up behind him. Before he had the chance to react, a ball of wind energy generated in the palm of my hand, and I thrust it hard into his abdomen. "Wind gust bomb!"

Mr. 5 fell backward, groaning in pain as he fell hard on the damp ground. I could feel the stunned expressions of the pirates boring into me, but I chose to ignore them for the time being; keeping myself focused only on the enemy. I smirked.

"You see, I don't need gunpowder to make fireworks."

"Damn, you stupid pirates!" the agent coughed, clutching his stomach as he scrambled to his feet. "I refuse to let you make a mockery of me! Time for a full body explosion! There'll be nothing left of you!"

The man lunged at me, but I swooped myself quickly out of range and behind him once again.

"You want some more, huh?!" I manipulated the air to my command, forming another ball of swirling wind in my palm. I thrust another gust bomb at Mr. 5. Going for his back this time, the exploding man flew face first into the ground.

"Alright, Myra! Stick it to him good!" Usopp cheered me on.

Clearly frustrated, Mr. 5 struggled himself to stand up and grabbed Usopp in a fierce headlock. The sharpshooter flailed his arms around, panicking.

"Ah! Let go of me, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, let go!"

Nami raised her wooden staff dangerously at Mr. 5. "Let him go!"

"Oh god, I'm too young to die! Please!"

And suddenly, Nami was stopped by another, new addition to the fight.

"Flaming onigiri!"

In one swift movement, Usopp was released from Mr. 5's hold, and standing before us in all his glory was Zoro; his three swords in tow. His blades were somehow coated in the flames of the wax platforms remains, and the Baroque Works agent crumpled to the ground behind green hair, his body engulfed in the fire.

"You know, these flaming swords aren't too bad."

My jaw dropped. "What did you even do? That was so fast, I didn't see a thing!"

Zoro smirked, tucking his katanas back in their sheaths. He then turned to greet the giant who found his own way out of the melting wax, now making his way over to the group.

"Hey there, glad to see you made it out alive."

"Heh. Yeah." Broggy grinned. He was looking off somewhere near the trees and paused, his mood turning glum. "So now it seems two foes are left."

Usopp approached the giant carefully. "...Master?"

Broggy's eyes didn't waver. Growing curious as to what his attention was so pressed on, I slowly stalked closer to the giant myself. Once I got in his view point, I gasped loudly.

"What the- The other giant?!"

Everyone gave me a weird look as if to say, _Yeah? And? _

"That's so strange. I was here the whole time. Since when was his body here..?" my voice trailed off, embarrassed at my own inattentiveness.

"Hey guys! Hey, you're not all waxy anymore! I'm glad." Luffy's voice arrived, thankfully taking everyone's attention off of me.

"Luffy? Where'd you run off to?"

He jerked a thumb behind him. "To finish off the candle guy."

"What? And you didn't take me with you..?" I sighed under my breath.

I really wanted to beat that guys face in.

Behind us, Broggy began to cry. Which steadily progressed into a gross sob. The giant's wailing grew so loud, we all had to squeeze our hands over our ears in order to protect our own ear drums.

Not only that, but as a giant, this guys tears were huge. As he continued to mourn his fallen comrade, his tears flowed down his face like two endless rivers raining down from above; drowning our smaller forms in the clear, salty liquid.

"Woah, look at that! His tears are making a rainbow!" Luffy exclaimed.

"With all this crying, we'll drown here."

"It's practically a waterfall." Zoro pointed out.

Suddenly, the once still, massive form laying next to Broggy shifted, causing the giant to seize his blubbering. We all watched on in shock as the other giant braced his arms against the ground and, ever so slowly, raised himself into a sitting position.

"...Dorry! Y-You're alive!" Broggy stuttered in disbelief. Dorry panted heavily.

"I must have lost consciousness..."

"But... how are you still alive?" the navigator demanded.

"The weapons... they saved me."

"Weapons..?" Usopp tapped his chin. "Oh, yeah! That makes sense. Not even weapons that were made in Elbaf could hold up after one hundred years of giants dueling to the death with them. They must be dull by now. Now that's a relief." he sighed, tossing his hands in the air. "It's a miracle, really."

Broggy barely registered anything the rest of us were saying, as he was too focused on his friend, Dorry, who was miraculously still alive. The giant crushed his friend to his chest in a tight embrace, making the other wince.

"Broggy, would you let go? I'm a little sore here."

"I'm so glad you're still alive, Dorry! It's amazing!" Broggy cried out in joy.

Zoro brushed off Usopp's theory. "Come on, this wasn't a miracle. The fact that those weapons are still intact after a century of fighting is the miraculous part. They should be scrap by now. I'm surprised they lasted this long."

Broggy raised his enormous head to the sky, letting cheerful laughter spill off his tongue. "What a day this was! Thank you, god of Elbaf, for this wonderful day!"

"Oh? Is that true, Broggy? You're saying that fighting me while I was injured, cutting me down and knocking me out, was all wonderful?"

"Don't be an idiot, Dorry. That's not what I'm saying, and you know it!" Broggy slapped the giants arm playfully. Dorry clutched onto it in pain for a short moment, then just as quickly replaced his pain for laughter.

"Would you keep your hands off my wounds?" he grinned, punching Broggy back.

The two continued poking fun at each other, and it warmed my heart to watch the scene unfold before me.

"Best friends, united together again. It's so cute... I almost find it hard to believe they aren't sick of each other, after spending a whole century together."

"You try doing that again and see how far you get!" Dorry suddenly barked, butting heads with the other giant. They glared ferociously into one another's eyes.

"Yeah? I could take you down in a heartbeat!"

Luffy chuckled, raising his fist in the air with enthusiasm. "Yeah! Duel! Fight!"

"You two are fighting again already?!" Nami uttered.

"You know, these guys' rivalry reminds me of some certain people..."

It took the swordsman some time before he realized I was smirking at the back of his head. "Hm? What're you looking at?"

"Oh, nothing~" I sang.

* * *

_Little Garden: Jungle Grounds, 6:12 pm_

All of us spent the next little while resting and replenishing ourselves. I was laying on my mildly blistering backside, enjoying the cool feeling of the earth pressing against my bare, tan skin, while Nami and Vivi filled Dorry in on what he missed out during his period of unconsciousness.

"We've been fighting so long, that we've completely forgotten about the bounties placed on our heads."

Vivi stared at her feet, ashamed. "But I'm the whole reason the Baroque Works agents came here in the first place. It's my fault."

Nami gingerly pinched the princess' cheek. "None of that anymore, okay?"

"Yeah, come on Vivi. Why are you so sad?" I lifted my head to look at the captain, and instantly burst into laughter at the combination of his funny pose coupled with the cracker that hung dumbly from his mouth.

He pulled out another cracker from the bag to offer the princess. "Here, have a rice cracker."

Nami sweat dropped. "Uh, guys? Where did you get those?"

Vivi may not have been up for having it, but the loud churning noise sounding from my stomach practically told the whole world that I was more than happy to take it for her. Eagerly, I joined the boys. "Who cares? I'll take that, thanks. I feel like I could eat a whale!"

Luffy stood up excitedly. "I know, let's have a rice cracker party!"

Usopp quirked a brow. "Rice crackers aren't that exciting, you know."

"Sure they are! We can even toast with them. Cheers~!"

The rubber man took one of the crackers and smashed it against his knee, making me giggle.

"Hey Luffy, don't do that!" Usopp scolded him, picking up the crushed bits. "Can't just go wasting food like that, seriously. You should know better."

Luffy pounced on the sniper when he started eating the broken cracker. "Hey, what are you doing?! Who said you could have my cracker? Give it!"

_Should I stop them...? Nah, I'll just steal the whole bag while they're not looking. _I thought to myself, snatching the bag and silently retreating back to where the girls stood.

I returned just in time to see Nami scratching uncomfortably at some red spot on her torso.

"What's with you?" Zoro turned his head at the navigator.

"Nothing, just a bug bite."

"Alright." the swordsman shrugged, resuming his mope session. "I still can't believe we have to wait for a year just for the log pose to reset."

"I know," Nami sighed. "It's definitely something we should be worried about."

I sat myself down next to Zoro on the moss-covered log, pulled a rice cracker out of the bag and offered it to him."Would a cracker help cheer you up?"

He stayed silent, glaring at me with suspicion. I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, come on. What, you think I poisoned them or something?"

"Well, that could be a possibility."

"Hmph." I puffed my cheeks. "Geez, why do you gotta be so grumpy with me? I'm just trying to be nice."

"Because just yesterday you were dressed in sailor clothes, bombing up our ship. So excuse me if I'm not as naive as my captain. Don't go thinking just because you and I survived a near-death experience together that it suddenly means we're all buddy-buddy."

A long moment of silence fell between us, before I sighed and smiled gently. "Alright, fine. You can think whatever you want about me." I continued munching on more crackers, remaining calm and nonchalant. I stared into the bag while I spoke. "I can't say I blame you. To be honest, if I were in your position, I'd probably feel the same way."

He kept silent. I made a tiny giggle.

"For the record, I thought your sword raising pose was pretty cool."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could have sworn I saw the swordsman struggling to fight off the smallest of smiles.

"All of you helped save us from those other guys. If we can, we would really like to return the favor." Broggy called all of us to attention. Luffy hopped onto a nearby rock.

"Well maybe you guys could do something about our log pose, so we won't be stuck here."

Dorry sighed. "I'm afraid the log pose is the one thing we can't help you with."

I hugged my knees to my chest and frowned, my cheeks chubby with crackers stuffed inside.

"Nami dear, Vivi, Myra, my loves! And all the rest of you!"

"Hey Sanji!" Luffy waved happily at the sight of his cook, who was swooning all the way over to us.

I snorted. "'All the rest of you'?"

Sanji stalked up to me, Vivi and Nami with open arms. "You're all still okay! I'm so happy!"

"Of course he's happy." Usopp huffed. "The big useless jerk! He shows up after _we've _taken care of everything!"

After finally managing to tear his eyes away from us girls for a few seconds, the blonde shrieked at the sight of the two giants. "What the hell is going on?! Is one of you guys Mr. 3?"

I stood up next to Nami, resting my elbow on one of her shoulders and tilted my head. "Well, you sure missed out on a lot."

"Wait, just how do you know about Mr. 3 anyway?" Nami questioned.

Sanji turned to us, and his eyes nearly bugged out of his skull at the sight of our half-dressed bodies. "Nami, Myra! You ladies look absolutely amazing in those outfits."

_But, we aren't wearing anything... _I pondered in innocent confusion.

Nami raised a fist. "Say that again!"

Unfazed by her aggression, the cook shed off his overcoat and wrapped it around the red head. "Now Nami, if you stand around like that all day, you'll catch cold. Here, take my coat."

"Oh, thank you."

Off in the distance, Vivi frowned sadly at her black and green striped blazer. "Aw, my clothes are burnt to shreds..."

Immediately rushing over to the princess, Sanji unbuttoned his dress shirt. "You can take my shirt, dear Vivi~!"

I tapped my finger to my rosy pink lips in thought. "Hmm, okay. That's the last of his clothes, which leaves me with..." my eyes locked with the swordsman's, and I asked with a casual smile, "Hey Zoro, can I borrow your shirt?"

"No way!" he snapped back at me, immediately flustered by my request.

The cook spun himself back over to me, his voice dropping charmingly low. "Have no fear, my love."

And just like the flip of a switch, his enchanting demeanor changed into something much more terrifying as he leaned in dangerously close to me, holding out his arms. "I can just cover you with my own body."

With lightening quick speed, I slapped his arms away; covering my chest with my free arm. "Hands off, pervert!" I squeaked, my eyes squeezed shut and my cheeks dusting a light shade of pink.

Quickly recovering from my defenses, Sanji regained his composure and parked himself on the nearby log. He stuck a fresh, new cigarette in his mouth; a silent cue that he was ready for serious conversation. "So, I've been a little busy. I just finished talking to that Mr. 0 guy over a transponder snail."

Vivi instantly tensed at the name. "Mr. 0?"

"Yeah, that guy. I was talking to him in this weird hide out place I found in the jungle. Which reminds me," the blonde pulled a slightly dirty pink bag out from behind him, holding it out to me. "This is yours, isn't it?"

My eyes sparkled in joy. "My back pack! You found it, thank you!" I hugged it close to my chest, grinning from ear to ear.

I was so wrapped up in my bag, that I failed to noticed Sanji flicking a soft smile in my direction. Calmly exhaling a cloud of smoke, the cook continued with his story.

"Anyway, he thought I was some guy called Mr. 3, and I thought it would be a good idea to let him believe it. And since I had him on the line, I went ahead and told him we were all dead."

"So he thinks he doesn't have to send people after us anymore." Vivi finished.

"So you're saying that we're finally free of people chasing us now that we can't go anywhere anyway? Oh, that's just perfect." Usopp griped sarcastically.

Sanji blinked. "We can't go? Why, is there still something we need to take care of here? That's a real shame, after I managed to get a hold of this thing."

Everyone gasped deeply at the item the blonde recovered from his pocket. Sanji quirked a brow, unsure if he should be concerned or not.

"Uh... what?"

A translucent blue orb, with a needle encased inside, cradled between a wooden casing.

It was an eternal pose. With eight tiny letters carved into the top of the wood that read:

A-L-A-B-A-S-T-A

Luffy beamed. "An eternal pose to Alabasta! Alright! Now we can set sail!"

"Ah, thank goodness! We can get out of here after all!" I clasped my hands together.

"Alright everyone, now we're having a rice cracker party!" the captain danced around in glee. Him and Nami clanged rice crackers together jovially, as one would when cheering with drinks.

"No way!" Usopp protested, holding up the bag. "Look Luffy, we don't have enough left for a party. There's only three."

"What?"

"Well, I wouldn't know anything about that..." I whistled, looking everywhere but at the sharpshooter.

"It doesn't matter. We don't have time for that anyway." Nami replied, pushing Luffy along. "Come on now, captain. We don't have time to be sitting here."

"'Kay." he agreed, turning to the giants. "Hey, giant old guys. It's really been a lot of fun. But we gotta go."

"Of course. Right. We can tell you need to get going."

"It's too bad that you have to leave so soon. I hope you get to your homeland in time."

"Me too. Thank you." Vivi smiled appreciatively at the pair.

Once the rest of the group got themselves sorted out, ready to trudge through the jungle and back to the ship, I slung my back pack over my shoulder and followed after the navigator.

"See ya! Try not to die anymore, okay?" Luffy waved, and Usopp pledged after him.

"Master! I'm going to go visit Elbaf someday!"

Sanji played with the cigarette in his hands, smirking at the green haired swordsman next to him. "You just wait and see, my catch is much bigger than yours."

"Hmph. You wish."

"You two are still going on about that?" I laughed. "You gotta be kidding me."

* * *

_Little Garden: Riverside Entrance, 6:43 pm (on The Going Merry)_

After bandaging the gash on my leg and changing into a fresh, mint green tank top, I joined the rest on the deck of the vessel; grateful to be fully clothed again. Zoro and Sanji's banter filled my ears as I made my way over to where Usopp and Vivi stood.

"Yours doesn't even have horns!"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Size!"

Nami sighed heavily. "Children, how long are you going to fight? We don't need all of it anyway, just cut up what we _do _need so we can get out of here already!"

"Right! Of course, Nami!" The cook saluted her. Zoro huffed and crossed his arms.

"Hey Usopp, would you tell him that I'm clearly the winner?"

"No, I really don't care."

"Can't you just agree it's a tie?"

Zoro scoffed at the princess. "I don't believe in ties. I fight to win."

"Sheesh... Those two are as stubborn as oxes. Maybe even more stubborn, in fact." I said exasperated, while gently fumbling the large, dark purple bruise on my left arm; a gift courtesy of Mr. 3.

"JUST HURRY UP, YOU TWO!"

Both momentarily shivering at her powerful rage, Sanji and Zoro quickly complied to the navigator's commands. Zoro cut off all the meat they could possibly stuff in the ship's small kitchen, while Sanji took care of hoisting the sails and prepping the Merry for travel.

"Set sail!" Luffy shouted from the figurehead he was sitting upon. Soon enough, the second the off-white tarps unfurled they grasped onto the wind's current, and we were moving steadily down the river. Nami flipped the eternal pose around in her hand.

"The giant said that going straight would take us to the western end of the island."

"Hey, couldn't you guys have gotten anymore meat on board?"

"Yeah, right."

"We can't possibly preserve anymore than this, it would just spoil before we could eat it." the cook scoffed, and Nami stared at the captain in astonishment.

"Are you actively trying to sink the ship?"

I smiled calmly, in a world of my own as I enjoyed the cool breeze hitting my face. "Ah, It feels good to be getting out of here."

"Hey! Look at that, it's the giants!" Luffy pointed ahead, at the sight of Broggy and Dorry standing on either side of the river; their backs turned on us. "They must have come down here to say goodbye."

One of them began to speak, keeping their eyes glued on the sea. "A great danger still lies ahead of you."

"It is an obstacle that has always been here, trying to prevent people from reaching the next island."

A sense of conviction ghosted over Dorry's form. "Every one of you fought like true warriors in order to protect the pride of our duel."

"And because you were willing to do that, no matter what enemy you may face..."

They both grinned.

"We will never let them destroy your pride, friends."

Broggy protruded his massive arm ahead of himself. "You must have faith in what we say; Go straight! No matter what happens, keep going straight! Understand?"

Luffy nodded. "Yeah. Got it."

"What was that about?" Zoro questioned.

I bit my lip. "I'm not sure I like where this is going..."

Usopp pouted at the captain. "I don't get it, what'd he say?"

"No matter what happens, just go straight."

"This is goodbye." The two giants concluded as they pulled out their weapons, holding them over their chests.

"Let us meet again someday."

"Absolutely."

A faint rumble engulfed our senses; a small noise that grew in volume to the point where the loudness of it was so immense that the deck boards beneath our feet started to quake. A few of us wobbled around clumsily, struggling to keep balance as the ship swayed back and forth.

"Look, over there!" Nami shrieked, pointing at what appeared to be some giant creature rising from the ocean waters. A sea king, maybe.

"Hello, island eater." Dorry gripped his weapon tight.

I gulped. _Okay. Last time I checked, sea kings didn't eat landmarks for breakfast..._

"You _will_ open the path. In the name of Elbaf, you will open it!"

The giants cried out in mighty roars, their deep voices booming with dominance as they raised their weapons in unison. My cerulean irises stretched as wide as saucers when auras of purple and red hazed around their forms, signaling for the giant fish to open it's mouth. "No way... they expect us to crash head on into this thing?!"

Vivi's pet bird squawked in fear, Sanji's cigarette dropped carelessly from his mouth.

"It's a monster!" Usopp exclaimed.

"What the heck is that guy? A goldfish?" Luffy pursed his lips in honest curiosity. Sometimes it baffled me how that man could be so calm in crazy situations like these.

"It's a... g-giant goldfish!"

"Usopp, hey!" Nami called the trembling sharpshooter to attention. "Start working the rudder or we're gonna be eaten! Hurry it up!"

"Yeah, I know but..." Usopp swallowed hard, and came back at her with a reply that surprised me. "We have to go straight ahead. Isn't that right, Luffy?"

The captain nodded sternly. "We sure do."

The fish's mouth was now fully open, ready to swallow the ship whole along with all of us in it. The more the Merry traveled closer to it's immeasurable jaws, the more I felt my heart leap against my chest.

I forced my voice out, straining it over the loud crashing of waves being sucked into the fish's throat. "I don't know you guys... How is letting this giant fish eat us going to help us get out of here?"

"Don't be a moron, Luffy!" Nami shouted. "This isn't gonna be anything like what happened with Laboon!"

"Yeah, I know. Now calm down. Here, I'll let you have the last rice cracker."

The red head caught the food absentmindedly, continuing her argument. "I don't want a cracker! If we don't turn this ship around right now, that thing is gonna eat us!"

"Nami, just give it up." Zoro groused, opening the door to the men's quarters to let a distressed Carue inside. The navigator obeyed, nibbling anxiously on the rice cracker in her hands.

Sanji hollered. "Luffy! You really sure we can trust those little pals of yours?"

"Yep."

"Are we actually going to head willingly into that beasts belly?!" Vivi cried in dismay.

"Uhuh, it's too late to turn back now!"

"Oh my god." I croaked, curling myself into a ball on the deck and shivering.

Our surroundings grew more and more shady, until the inner sides of the fish's cheeks surrounded us, and it closed it's scaly lips on us at last. We were completely trapped inside. Everything was pitch black. I couldn't help but burst out into a distraught scream.

Usopp's eyes sewed shut. "Just go straight! Go straight!"

"What does it matter?! We've already been eaten here!"

I slapped my hands over my eyes, my voice tumbling in fright. "Oh god, oh god, oh god, I don't like this! I hate the dark, it makes me feel like somethings going to jump out at us at any moment..!"

"_That's _whats scaring you? Not the fact that we've just been swallowed alive?!" I heard Vivi's voice shrill in my ears. Luffy snarled from the front.

"Straight, okay?! Just keep going!"

And suddenly, in the midst of all the chaos that was going on, a powerful force of light hit the back of the ship; illuminating the darkness momentarily in shades of red and purple. Everyone thrust forward in a single, violent jerk, and unbelievably enough, the beam of light shot through the creature and burned a hole straight through it. We all jerked forward again, and the ship was sent hurtling through the hole and flying onward through the air. We were free.

It was a miracle.

I heard Luffy laugh giddily. "We're flying!"

Slowly, I uncurled myself and looked around. "What..."

I was more than relieved to see the sunlight again and feel the ocean waters spraying my face, cleansing me of the goldfish's stale breath. "We're... were out!" I gleamed. "We made it!"

"Don't bother looking back, cause we're moving straight ahead!" Luffy held his hat secure, his eyes bursting with energy. "Look at us... this is so incredible!"

"Thank god...! The sea! The strength of the Elbaf warriors is amazing!" Usopp shed tears of joy as the ship crashed back into the waters of the Grand Line at last.

I ran over hastily to the stern of the boat, looking out at the giants who were now a fair distance away from us. Once my brief panting had subsided, the corners of my lips slowly upturned into a wide smile, and I raised both my arms over my head; waving them back and forth wildly. "Goodbyyyye! Thank you both so much! For everything!"

The two of them were strong, dependable statues; remaining in their proud stances. But I knew they heard my voice, and were touched by my gratitude. After a while, I lowered my arms back down, letting my face relax into a gentle, content expression. My fiery crimson hair swept behind me with the wind as I marveled at the view of the jungle island. It looked so much smaller now, from where we stood. More mystical and enchanting.

I sensed Usopp come up behind me.

"Amazing, isn't it..."

He smiled in silent agreement.

"You know, there's just one thing I still don't understand. About Baroque Works."

"What's that?"

"They claim themselves to be bounty hunters, and yet, their ringleader is a seven warlord... I wonder why that is." I mused, still keeping my now vacant eyes glued on the island. The sniper shrugged.

"Who knows?"

My features slowly melted into a soft grin.

* * *

_Travel log no.2, October 2 (night time)..._

_Today proved to be quite the adventure. I'd made so many discoveries while on Little Garden. The island was chock full of volcanoes, huge foreign plants, and many creatures you'd think to be extinct; like dinosaurs! The place was one big prehistoric wonderland. But now, I'm just grateful to be back on the Straw Hat's ship. While I did have an exciting time, it's nice to have some serenity. Especially after the chaos we faced. The agency that's been chasing Vivi's tail somehow managed to track down the Straw Hat's, and we faced quite the challenge having to fend off a few Baroque Works agents. With the help of some nice giants (yes, they are real) we escaped the island flashily, but without a fuss. Next destination is Alabasta, Vivi's homeland. There's obviously going to be civilization there, I'm sure I'll be able to find a place to stay and recollect. I gotta say, I'm really having a lot of fun with these people!_

Setting my feather pen down, I sighed in satisfaction as I looked over my words before closing the log book and returning my attention to the girls. It was one of the guys turns to be on the lookout tonight, so the three of us were relaxing inside the woman's quarters having some girl talk.

It was nice spending time with Nami and Vivi. Refreshing. Although I did feel a little standoffish at first. I had spent so much time the past several years being surrounded by countless men, even before I'd joined the marines, that I often had to remind myself what exactly 'being a girl' was like.

"Hey Myra, do you want another round of burn ointment?" Nami offered, waving the brown tube in her hand.

"Nah, I'm okay. I've put on enough already, my skin should feel good as new by tomorrow." I assured her, rubbing my hands cautiously over my ashy skin. Flicking my eyes over to the red head, I couldn't help but notice she was, for the tenth time that night, scratching at the red bump on her torso. "I was actually going to ask if we had anything for that bug bite of yours."

"What, this? I keep telling you guys, it's fine."

"Well, you have been itching at it a lot..." Vivi pressed, her eyebrows knitting together in concern.

"It looks like it's gotten bigger since we left the island, too." I added.

The navigator waved a flippant hand at us both. "Oh, come on. You guys are worrying too much. It's just itchy, that's all. And bites swell up all the time if you scratch at them enough. I'm alright, I swear."

"Well, okay then. If you say so..." I backed off, still unconvinced. I didn't want to start any arguments, so I decided to leave the issue alone for now. Vivi returned to re-applying more ointment on herself while I picked up my quill and continued writing some more.

As time passed by, Nami eventually stood up, heading towards her bed.

"I think I'm going to head in for the night early. I have a bit of a headache."

Vivi and I shared a look.

"Okay."

"Goodnight." I said, biting at the inside of my cheek. It shouldn't have been a big deal. After all, people got headaches all the time. It was perfectly normal.

So then... why did my gut tell me otherwise?

* * *

**16 followers after just four chapters? You guys are amazing, really! I feel so flattered, thanks to each and every one of you for your support. It means the world. ****Now I bring some news; There is a very high possibility that I will be going on a school trip to New York in a few days for about a week (I know, crazy! I'll be leaving the country for the first time ever! *happy flails*). Bad news is I wont get to work on this fic for the duration of that week, but never fear! I'll do as much as I can before I go, and hop right back on it the second I return. Believe me, this story is addicting to write, haha. Fave/Follow/Review!  
\- Natalie **


	6. The Wind Woman

**Chapter 6: The Wind Woman**

* * *

**"Blackbird singing in the dead of night  
****Take these broken wings and learn to fly  
****All your life  
****You were only waiting for this moment to arise"  
****  
Chapters soundtrack: Blackbird - The Beatles**

* * *

The weather in the Grand Line today was rather calm. A gentle breeze just barely rocked the waters, and the Merry didn't have much difficulty sailing straight onward. No marines had been chasing our tail, so everyone decided to take advantage of the peace provided for us and relax.

Zoro was working out by the back of the upper deck, standing at a far distance from the rest of the crew. Luffy and Usopp were dancing clumsily all around the ship, singing off-tune melodies about the fearsome Elbaf giants. Looking over just in time to see one of the men nearly slipping overboard, I giggled quietly into my journal from where I sat with the girls.

"When did they get so much energy?" Nami inquired, panting heavily. I watched her chest rise and fall in silence, slightly concerned as she cradled her sweating head in her hands. I couldn't help noticing how flushed her face was this particular morning. "Wow, after everything that's happened here I'm exhausted. Um, Vivi? Could you watch this for me?"

"Sure." Vivi took the eternal pose from the red head, staring at the needlepoint intently. Nami grinned softly.

"You're on your way. Soon you'll return to Alabasta. My rosy outlook is assuming we can make it there safely and without anymore surprises."

"Yes. I must return, it's my obligation. I am the person everyone in the kingdom is counting on." Vivi replied, her eyes drifting off as if remembering something gravely important. She clutched the pose in great earnestness."I will return home. Alive."

A few silent seconds slipped past as we all watched the princess' strong resolve. I found it admirable, more than anything. The poor girl must have had so much weighing on her shoulders, yet she was still able to put on a brave face like that.

"You'll get home, but there's no need to push yourself so hard. You've got me." Sanji reassured, stepping out from the kitchen. He set down the tray he was holding next to us and handed Vivi some pretty looking deserts. "Here you go. Try these sweets, they'll help you relax. I've made some delicious tarts and your choice of coffee or tea."

Hovering her gaze over the snacks momentarily, she smiled at the blonde, appreciative. "Thank you."

Luffy and Usopp must have been drooling over them as much as I was, because my attention had quickly been pulled away from the tarts when the sound of the cook's harsh voice barking at the two boys snapped me out of my reverie.

"Yours are in the kitchen, now go." he glared hotly, following after the boys who made an eager bee-line for the said location. Sanji trailed after them in order to make sure they didn't take any more food than they should, or make a mess of his kitchen.

Watching them leave, I didn't notice Vivi eyeing the brown, leathery book I'd been sticking my nose in for the past hour. Her thin brows knitted together.

"I can't help noticing how much you've been writing in that journal."

"What, this? Oh, it's nothing really." I cracked a tiny smile as I ran my nimble finger along the spine of the book. "I just... I love writing, is all."

"I can tell." the princess started. "Forgive me, but last night I'd stumbled across some stray papers that flew off your desk after you went to sleep. My curiosity got the better of me, and so I peeked at the words."

My entire face turned as red as my hair.

"That was some amazing poetry you wrote."

"Y-You found my poems?!" I buried my face in my hands in embarrassment.

Vivi chuckled, resting a comforting hand on my shoulder. "You really string words together beautifully. You should be proud of your talent."

Slowly, I flicked my blue eyes up at the princess. "Oh, it's not that I'm not proud of it. Actually, it's quite the opposite." I grinned. "I mean, the poetry is a little embarrassing to share, but I've been telling my stories to others since, well, my whole life really."

"Really? So you share your stories too, then?" Vivi beamed, and I nodded in response.

"Writing is a huge passion of mine, along with sharing my stories. I love seeing the faces of people light up in excitement when I captivate them with the very same words that captivated my own mind when writing it all down." I giggled. "I guess you can say I'm a novelist of sorts."

"Interesting... do you mind if a take a little peak at what you're writing now?" Vivi inquired, but I hesitated.

"This one? Well, this one... it's... it's a very special story. And it's not exactly done yet."

"I understand, it's okay. Perhaps another time, maybe, you could share one of your other stories with me? A story that you've already completed, perhaps?"

Immediately, my eyes sparkled and I clasped my hands together. "Of course! I'd love to tell you one sometime."

"Huh, what's that? A special diary or something?" Luffy snuck up on me from behind, abandoning the sharpshooter and grabbing my journal from my hands. He examined it wondrously in his hold. Effectively spooked, I quickly sprung on my feet to grab for it.

"Ah! It's nothing you need to worry about, now give it back!" I demanded frantically, my arms and Luffy's flailing around in a tangled mess of limbs as the two of us wrestled each other for the book.

"Hey Myra, there's actually something I've been meaning to ask you about." Usopp strolled over. Luffy and I both froze; his hand smushed against my face and mine still gripped firmly onto my notebook.

"Something else?"

Eventually losing his concentration, the captain let go of the journal at last, and I sat back down in satisfaction. Hugging the object to my chest, I gave Usopp my full attention as the sniper pressed on.

"It's been itching at me since we left Little Garden. When you attacked that agent."

"I've been curious about that as well." Vivi pressed a finger to her lip. "Your... fighting style. It's very unique."

I pondered for a brief period before letting a loose chuckle escape me. "Is that all it is?"

Holding my palm out in front of the group, I slowly tipped my hand up and gently swept it around in a circular motion. After a couple rotations of the wrist, the others watched on in amazement as tiny swirls of air chased around my fingers, forming a mini twister.

"It's nothing too crazy, really. I'm just a girl who ate the wind-wind fruit."

Straw Hat's eyes sparkled. "Woooah! So you're a wind woman?"

"Yep! Sure am!" I smiled cheerily. Bringing my hand to a stop, I pushed my palm against the air to form a soft breeze heading for the captain's direction. The wind was gentle, but strong enough to surprise Luffy by pushing his hat off his head. He gasped in surprise as he felt the string of his hat suddenly tugging against his neck, the weight of the headgear now on his back.

"I can summon the winds around me to do whatever it is I want with them. I can make soft breezes, or strong, stormy ones. I can compact and compress the air to make a powerful impact on another... and I can even make tornadoes."

"Woooow." Usopp and his captain replied in unison. Them, as well as the rest of the group ogled me in fascination. I stared into the deck boards.

"Although, I'm no logia type. I can't actually turn into the air itself, I can only manipulate the wind around me. Not exactly super strong, but in terms of self defense, so far it's been enough for me. My powers have also proved to come in handy for things like catching myself from free falls.

"Free falls?" Vivi tilted her head.

"Let me explain; if I somehow ended up in a situation where, lets say I happened to be falling to the ground. I can simply push against the wind underneath me to slow myself down and break my fall, gliding myself to a safe landing. Kind of like my own handmade parachute." I chuckled. "Or, wind-chute, I should say."

"Glide? Wait, so you can fly, too?"

"Well, not exactly, no." I corrected the princess. "But if I'm in the air, I can glide around for a short period of time. Here, maybe it'll be easier to understand if I just showed you."

Bringing myself to a stand, I strolled my way over to the outside of the kitchen nearby while the others (even Zoro in the distance) pressed their eyes on me with curiosity, eager to see what I was planning to do. Finding a rather creative way to climb onto the roof of the kitchen, I awkwardly scrambled my way up until I was standing on the edge of the roof. I looked over the crew, the deck, which I now towered over, and with a wide smile I hopped off the rooftop...

Just as Sanji happened to be coming out of the kitchen with more deserts.

Immediately scaring the crap out of the cook, the blonde dropped the tray of baked goods as if it were made of hot coals, and a shatter was heard as the teacups were smashed against the ground along with everything else that once belonged on the platter.

"Wh-What the hell?!"

Everyone else ignored his shock, keeping their eyes frozen on me. I was currently concentrated on my task, spreading my arms out at my sides like a bird spreading its own wings. Everyone was utterly amazed at the sight of my form gliding around in the air. I tilted my weight to one side, flying my body around in a swirling movement.

I exhaled in contentment at the feeling of refreshing wind kissing my skin at all angles, my scarlet red locks following every trail of the breeze. This dreamy weightlessness I'd felt only seemed to get better and better every time I did this little trick. The euphoria lasted maybe eight seconds before my body started to cut close to the deck, and I turned myself vertical, my feet gently meeting firm ground.

"That was... remarkable! You're almost like Pell back at home." Vivi expressed, to which her pet bird squawked excitedly in response.

"What... What just happened?!" the cook gaped at me, awestruck. I giggled and pointed a thumb to myself.

"I'm a wind woman. That's what."

"Y.. you're..." Sanji breathed, searching for words he couldn't find. He appeared rather taken away for a moment.

Even more so when he started to drool over me, his body getting a little too close to for comfort.

"You're like an angel~!"

I took a few steps back. "Eheheheh... uh, yeah. Thanks, I guess."

Luffy pumped his fist in the air with excitement. "That was so cool! Can you do it to me?"

"Of course!" I exclaimed. "It's actually easier for me to hurtle others through the air than myself."

"Oh! Do me then! Do me!"

"I wanna try too!" Usopp stalked over to me with a sudden eager look in his eyes. I smirked confidently, gesturing my hands to the kitchen.

"Alright boys, just hop on the roof."

I continued playing with the boys for a while, swaying my raised arms and flying the men through the air effortlessly. I had one arm focused on each person at once. Luffy was practically on cloud nine, while Usopp made just about the girliest shriek I'd ever heard come from a man's mouth the second I'd flung him off the roof. Both Luffy and I laughed hard at his distress, while the sniper wobbled around in the air frantically, immediately regretting his decision.

"No! No more, I wanna come down! Oh god, I'm going to die!"

"Usopp, you're such a wimp!" Luffy began to laugh even harder while I relished in my own giggle fit.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I gotcha!"

I grinned at the two boys bobbing around humorously, at Luffy's amusing attempts at trying to get Usopp to enjoy himself, and, watching the scene unfold, I truly felt myself begin to relax and enjoy the beautiful day.

But then, all so suddenly... Vivi shrieked a sentence that sent the whole crew and I on edge.

"Everyone! Come quick! Nami has an awful fever!"

Zoro seized his weight lifting at once, Sanji turned, and Luffy and Usopp immediately quit their noisy banter.

"Wh-What?" I turned at the princess' anxious call, forgetting for a moment that I was still supporting Luffy and Usopp.

They crashed to the ground, but I failed to look back. I was too focused on Nami. Once my eyes met with her collapsed form, her face beet red and her skin sweating so hard her clothes were practically sticking to her body, I gulped hard.

Something was definitely wrong.

"WHAT?! Nami's sick?!" Sanji uttered, pushing through Luffy and Usopp who'd quickly scrambled themselves back up off the ground in their own concern.

I ran over to the navigators side right away, kneeling down next to Vivi. Cradling her head in my hands, I wiped fiery strands of hair out of her eyes - which were damp with sweat, and sighed.

"I knew something was up..." I turned back briefly on the boys who were closing in on us uncomfortably. "Hey guys, back up a little, will you?"

"We have to get her inside. Quickly. Make sure to keep her head elevated." Vivi instructed.

"Sure thing." I complied, turning to the cook. "Sanji, can you help?"

"Of course." he took Nami in his arms at once, carefully taking her to the women's quarters as the rest of us anxiously followed behind.

* * *

The sound of Nami's feverish panting filled the crowded room. We all watched on in worry as Vivi laid her out on her bed with the help of Sanji, who was currently a complete wreck. The cook was practically whimpering at the sight, biting at his sleeve anxiously. I was surprised the man didn't scramble for another cigarette. Perhaps, I thought, he was thinking of Nami's current condition.

As for the rest of us, we could only stare at the navigator helplessly, wishing we knew what to do to help. Kneeling next to the red head's bedside, Vivi lifted her fair hands from a bowl of water, wringing out a small cloth.

"It's most likely the climate." she commented, gently resting the cold, wet fabric on Nami's forehead. "Its quite normal. Sailors in the Grand Line aren't used to the strange weather and can become quite ill. There are countless stories of tough, notorious pirates who suddenly died; their immune systems were attacked and ravaged by colds and fevers. Ignoring the symptoms can make even the slightest cold deadly."

Sanji's whimpering escalated. "Nami...!"

"Aw, there there..." I softened my voice, attempting to comfort the man. Vivi turned on us, hopeful and determined.

"Is there anyone aboard this ship with even the slightest amount of medical experience?"

A beat of silence. Fingers raised...

And everyone pointed to Vivi.

"Oh boy." I sighed, and Vivi looked to me next.

"Myra?"

I shrugged, frowning. "I hate to disappoint, but I only know as much about this stuff as you do. I know plenty of first aid, but that's really more for injuries, not illness."

Luffy's face lit up with a sudden idea. "Well when your sick, eating lots of meat always helps. Right Sanji?"

"Meat is protein, and that does give the body energy to operate properly. I can cook some foods that will boost her energy, but there's no guarantees. I'm not a doctor." the cook sulked, staring glumly at Nami. "Besides, if my cooking made that big a difference she'd never get sick. I put a hundred times more care into preparing her meals than I do for you losers. I serve Nami fresh meats and vegetables to ensure a balanced diet. Anything that's rotten or moldy..." he pointed to the boys. "Goes to you."

"Jerk!" Usopp shouted.

"I guess I should be thanking my lucky stars that I'm a girl, then." I mused aloud, crossing my arms.

"Oh well. Still tastes good to me." Straw Hat laughed.

"You two don't care at all!" Usopp turned to us, baffled.

The cook sighed. "My point is that as long as I'm the ships cook, nobody's gonna feed Nami better in terms of nutrition. I can do anything in the kitchen. I do know there are specific foods for different kinds of illnesses, but I can't make that call. She needs to be diagnosed by a doctor who'll tell us how to help her."

Luffy blinked. "Just... feed her everything that we've got."

"Oh, shut up!" Sanji snapped. "She doesn't have the energy to eat. _She's sick._"

I stepped over to Nami's side, pressing my hand to her forehead, and gasped. "Vivi, her heads really getting warm. It feels even hotter than before on deck."

"Hold on." Vivi checked the thermometer wedged in the navigators mouth. Her dark eyes nearly bugged out of her skull. "104! No, this isn't good!"

"There's bound to be doctors and nurses in Alabasta that can help, right? How much longer 'till we get there, Vivi?" Usopp fidgeted with unease. Vivi thought hard about it for a moment before bracing her hands against her knees.

"I don't know... At least a week, and that's too long."

Luffy's lips pursed in thought. "Kay, so she's sick. Maybe we're overreacting."

"I don't know, I've never been this sick." Usopp and Sanji replied, tilting their heads.

"If you've never been this sick, then maybe that's proof enough that we aren't exaggerating...?" I sweat dropped, resting my hands on both the boys shoulders from in between.

"Morons!" Vivi uttered. "Have you all lost your minds? This is serious. She shouldn't have such a high fever unless her body's fighting an infection. This is bad. Whatever is wrong, it's possibly life-threatening."

Those words set off like a time bomb in everyone's head. I cringed at the loud racket exploding throughout the room; a result of the entire crew's growing panic.

"YOU MEAN NAMI'S GONNA DIE?!" the captain screeched. Vivi shouted back with just enough power.

"YOUR SCREAMS AREN'T HELPING!"

I tried comforting Luffy, gently patting his back and attempting to transfer my soothing energy into him. "Now, now, please try not to freak out. We'll figure this out together-"

"WE HAVE TO FIND A DOCTOR TO HELP NAMI BEFORE SHE DIES!"

Needless to say, it wasn't working very well.

Vivi roared among the group. "Okay! Everyone just calm down, you're only going to make her feel worse!"

"Listen,"

Everyone froze instantly at the weak voice now joined in the small room. Effectively shutting us all up, each of us watched in surprise as Nami slowly pulled herself into a sitting position. The white cloth once sitting on her head fell to her lap.

"...I'm fine."

Vivi blinked."Nami?"

"Yaaay! She's cured!"

"Shut up!" Usopp smacked Straw Hat's head.

I waved my hands around in worry. "Nami, are you sure you should be-"

"Shh... go.. to..." she looked to Vivi, panting between words. "Go to my desk... open the second drawer. There's a newspaper in the bottom."

Vivi did as was instructed, and unfurled the newsprint, scanning over the tiny black letters. The more we watched her eyes trail along the paper, the more hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

"What's it say, Vivi?" I asked.

"No... that's not possible!" the princess' breath hitched, catching the attention of the boys.

"Huh? What's up? Something wrong?"

"Is it about Alabasta? Tell us."

Vivi gripped the paper hard in her hands. "According to this article, 300 thousand royal soldiers have defected to the resistance. Until now, we've been embroiled in a cold war, with 600 thousand royal soldiers against 400 thousand rebels. With this... the balance has shifted."

Nami nodded slowly. "The uprising in Alabasta will seriously escalate now. Things will get ugly. That paper you're looking at is three days old."

Vivi gulped.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier. We can't change our speed, so I didn't wanna worry you. There's nothing anybody can do right now. You understand, Luffy?"

The captain hummed. "Things are bad, and they're beyond our control."

"That sunk in better than I'd hoped."

"Nami, look. You need to see a doctor right away." Usopp countered the red head.

"I'm fine. The thermometer's broken. I mean, come on. Nobody gets a temperature of 104. It's probably just a mild case of sun stroke." she assured, struggling herself into a standing position.

I held my hands out to help steady her. "Last night you said you were fine, too. And now look; you can barely even stand up. You're not fine, Nami. Please, just stay in bed-"

"I'm fine..!"

I jumped at her sudden snapping, my hands faltering as I left my words hanging on my tongue.

"Trust me on this, please..." the navigator's voice returned to its former soft edge. "There's nothing a doctor can do for me that time wont. Besides, we don't have time to hunt for one. We need to head straight for Alabasta, right?"

The woman was standing by the frame of the door now. Turning back around briefly, she flashed us all a weak smile. "I appreciate the concern. Thank you."

"...Huh. She sure recovered fast." Luffy spoke once the red head left the room. Usopp shook his head.

"No. She's faking it."

"Oh, Nami..." I sighed, frowning as I shared a look with the three boys, then looking back to Vivi, who was still staring hard into the newspaper.

What a mess we were in.

"Now that this conflict has escalated, more blood will be shed throughout the kingdom." Vivi shook. "We're at war. If I don't put a stop to this insanity, the entire kingdom of Alabasta will be doomed. Crocodile will move in and seize control."

The woman's hands balled into fists, carelessly crumpling the edges of the newspaper in her grasp. She hunched over Nami's abandoned bed in frustration. "You're trying to get me home safely, but there's no time. I need to get home as quickly as possible. If I don't make it back in time, a million innocent citizens will give their lives needlessly!"

Luffy gaped. "There's a million people there? Wow..."

"That's a terrible burden you have to carry. I'm sorry." Sanji sympathized.

"Not only that..." I stared at the door. "This is just about the worst time for things to be falling apart like this."

A gentle whimper sounded in the back of Vivi's throat.

"Uh- hey, listen Vivi." I quickly knelt beside her, wrapping an arm around the woman's shoulders. "No one blames anyone in this situation. Not the terrible things going on in your country, or whatever appears to be wrong with Nami."

The princess only continued looking more distressed. I panicked for a moment, stumbling frantically over my words.

"Ah! No, wait! Let me start over."

"You're not very good at this, are you?"

"Shut up." Sanji scolded the captain in my defense, smacking his head.

"I mean, what I'm trying to say is... whatever you decide, it's okay. You don't have to feel pressured because of us, we understand. Just do what you feel is right, I'm sure you'll make the right decision."

Vivi looked to me, astonished. "I... thank you."

"Hey! Get your butts out here, right now!"

All of us turned at Zoro's muffled voice from outside. Giving Vivi's shoulder a firm, comforting squeeze, I followed the boys to the deck.

"Huh? Whaddya want?" the sharpshooter inquired. Sanji griped at the swordsman.

"You know, I find it hard to get motivated when you're giving the orders."

"Shut up and get moving. Take the seat and catch the port side wind."

"Hm?" I weaved my fingers through the air.

"Nami, what's up?" the cooked turned to her, confused. "It's a perfect day. The sun is shining, the waves are quiet..."

"...The wind."

"Wind?"

"Now that you mention it, it feels a bit... stale." I concurred.

"Wind can feel _stale_ to you?" Usopp oggled me.

"There's a powerful wind. It's heading right this way." Nami turned. "I think... huh?"

Taken by surprise as the captain's hand suddenly met with her face, Nami eyed her captain in confusion. "..Luffy?"

The man shouted suddenly, springing his hand off her forehead immediately. "Your heads on fire! You gotta stay in bed and we need to get you a doctor!"

"Maybe you should mind your own business!" Nami lashed out. "This is my normal temperature. Now quit being so stupid and pull the damn ropes!"

"Nami, I know you're acting brave for Vivi, but if you keep pushing your body wont have a chance to heal." Sanji eased, and Carue squawked behind him in agreement.

"I told you guys I'm fine, let it go!" she braced her hands on the ships upper rail, breathing even heavier from all the shouting. I bit my lip.

Usopp raised his hands. "Woah, hey, take it easy..."

"Not another word, dammit! Hurry and move the ship."

"Right."

"Were on it."

"Gotcha."

All the boys complied to her demands as quick as they could. I made my way to the upper deck, approaching the navigator. "The breeze is off. What do you think? Is it a storm coming?"

"Something... I don't know... something's.. headed this way. And soon."

I nodded, trying to ignore the fact that the woman could barely speak. Silently, I remained by her side, watching over her in case anything should happen. Sanji and Zoro worked the ropes while Usopp took over the rudder, and soon enough the ship was changing it's course. Luffy hopped on the figurehead again, seemingly his favorite spot on the ship.

"I have to ask you all a favor." Vivi brought us to attention, joining us outside on the upper deck. "As a passenger on your ship, it's not my place to ask this. But I have no choice; my homeland is in jeopardy of being destroyed. So I would really appreciate it if we could move even faster. Every minute I'm out here puts more of my people in danger of losing their lives. We need to head for Alabasta at full speed."

Everyone stared at the princess sensibly, albeit a little hesitant at her more selfish request; considering Nami's condition. I smiled half-heartedly, trying to remind myself to imagine what it must be like being in Vivi's shoes right now.

"Of course we will. Just like we promised." Nami smiled at her.

"Then it's settled." Vivi mirrored her expression. "Lets find an island with a doctor on it right away."

"Wait... what?" Nami stammered.

"First things first, we have to get Nami healthy again. Then we head for Alabasta." The princess smirked.

A slow grin crept it's way onto my face. "Vivi, you..."

"After all, we need her to move the helm at top speed."

The captain grinned. "Right. No one makes this ship move like Nami."

"Princess, hold on." Usopp started. "Won't finding a doctor for Nami take time the citizens of Alabasta just don't have?"

"That's right. So the sooner we get Nami a doctor, the sooner we can get to Alabasta." Vivi smiled.

_You made the right choice after all, Vivi. _I thought, nodding in approval.

Sanji smirked, lighting a new cigarette. "Those are wise words, Vivi. You're beautiful _and _brilliant."

"The girl's got guts." Zoro grinned, a challenging spark in his eyes.

Nami gaped at the princess, nearly crawling against the rail to make it over to her. "Thank you, Vivi."

"Don't over exert yourself, Nami." Vivi soothed. The red head smiled faintly.

"I... I'm sorry. I may need to lie.. down-"

"Nami!" Vivi exclaimed, catching the navigators collapsing body in her arms.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Luffy screamed from the figurehead, pointing his tense finger at a colossal spiral of fierce winds and ocean waters twisting into each other. Right next to the ship.

Vivi shrieked. "It's a cyclone!"

"A ginormous cyclone." I stiffened, sweat forming at my brow.

"It's huge!"

"Wait," Vivi observed. "That's the same path we were headed on!"

Sanji's jaw dropped. "Vivi's right, that's the exact same direction."

"It would have been a direct hit if we kept going straight. We'd be dead right now!" Usopp shouted, hysterical.

Suddenly, the dark and cloudy skies above us brightened with an overwhelming amount of light. Every one of us jumped at the huge strike of lightning that stretched so far it hit the very surface of the waters, dangerously close to the ship. The waves around us thrashed violently, and Luffy curled his stretching hands around the ship's mast for security.

"See that?" he held onto his hat. "Way too close! We barely missed it!"

"Nami made the right call, that's for sure." I turned to the princess. "Vivi, hurry and get her back into the girls room. She's done her part."

"Uh, sure! Okay." she complied, retiring into the women's quarters with the frail navigator on her shoulders.

"Alright." Luffy grinned in excitement. "What are we waiting here for? Let's find Nami a doctor!"

"YEAH!" everyone raised their fists in the air, me included. I let a bubbly laugh escape me as we rode out the last of the storm. Once it fell behind us, Usopp let himself drop to the ground in relief.

"Phew! We're safe now..."

"Yeah..." I replied, shivering absentmindedly and hugging my arms.

"Hey, does anyone else feel a bit... cold?"

* * *

_Travel log no.3, October 5..._

_It's been a couple days since we've set out for a doctor, and still no island in sight. The Straw Hat's navigator has only grown more ill since then, and I'm starting to get really worried. Our course hasn't changed from the other day, and it's gotten from cold to downright freezing the longer we've sailed here. All of us have had to bundle up. I'm wrapped up inside a big, brown parka as we speak (thankfully it's really soft and warm! Heheh.). Since yesterday night, we've even started to spot a few icebergs sprinkling the sea. There's no doubt about it; we're approaching a winter island._

"Aw, this is taking forever!"

"Try to wait a little longer, Luffy." I consoled the whining captain. "It's been a few days, now. I'm sure we're bound to find an island soon."

Luffy pouted. "It's freezing out here. Hey, wait! We can move around to keep warm!"

Usopp and I watched the boy roll all over the deck like a crazy maniac, and sighed in exhaustion.

"Or you could just wait inside."

"Your captain's an odd one, isn't he?"

"You don't know the half of it."

"Hey, Zoro! See any doctors yet?" Straw Hat called to the swordsman, who was currently up in the crows nest searching for any possible sign of land.

The man had his eyes glued intently on the binoculars in his hands. He gave it a few beats of silence before finally tearing them away from his face.

"Uhh, hey guys? What do you think of people standing on water?"

"What, do I think it's possible?" Luffy pondered.

"What kind of a question is that?" Usopp expressed. "It's impossible of course!"

"Oh, come on Luffy." I shook my head skeptically. "He's probably just looking at a weirdly shaped iceberg. There's a ton of them out here."

"Yeah?" Zoro pointed. "Well then, what's that?"

"What's what?"

"Like I said, iceberg-"

All of us froze in disbelief. Staring ahead of us, at a ways distance from the front of the ship, indeed was a man standing on the ocean. Standing, as if the Grand Line was simply just a large slab of cement to him. Zoro was telling the truth.

"Who in the heck..?"

The man looked very unique; dressed in a sort of fashion I couldn't quite make sense of, let alone describe. A set of bow and arrows accompanied the mysterious figure, slung over his back.

Luffy hummed.

"Do you think he's a doctor?"

* * *

**Aaah, and the Drum Island arc begins! Hope you enjoyed the chapter~  
**\- **Natalie**


	7. Not As You Know Them

**Chapter 7: Not As You Know Them**

* * *

**"So, the storm finally found me  
And left me in the dark  
In the cloud around me  
I don't know where you are"**

**Chapter's soundtrack: Cactus In The Valley (acoustic) - LIGHTS**  
**(Myra and her parent's official theme)**

* * *

Every one of us stood still as statues as we took in the sight of the odd individual planted among the ocean before us. Somewhere nearby, Usopp rubbed away at his eyes in attempt to make absolutely sure he wasn't hallucinating.

"Hello! Sure is chilly today." the man waved.

Zoro's eyebrow lifted. This man was being unusually nonchalant.

"Yeah, it is chilly today." the captain turned to his sniper.

Usopp rubbed his chin. "Definitely. It's very chilling. In fact, I would even say it's freezing."

"You guys just start making small talk anyway..?" I cut in with a sweatdrop.

"Really?"

All of us jumped at the sudden return of the man's voice invading the peaceful white noise of the waves. Like a mirror image, our startled jolts caught the person by surprise, sending his nerves into their own frenzy. I wasn't exactly sure if we'd genuinely spooked one another, or if the guy was just mocking us. As the awkward stare-off continued, I tried to search my mind for any sign of clue. Who was this man? What did he want?

All of a sudden, I felt my two feet and the ship beneath them beginning to shake. Snapping myself back to attention, quickly I glanced around myself as the sea started to rumble. The threatening sounds of ocean waves rocking and splashing against one another filled my ears and, before I had the chance to react, I felt myself falling backwards. The entire ship was tilting.

Scrambling to find something to grab hold, soon my hands were fortunate enough to find solace on a wooden railing. However, just as quickly my luck ran out when I'd felt my fluffy white mitts steadily losing their grip. A small yelp of surprise escaped my throat as I felt my body start to plummet and my back slam hard into Usopp's front side; the two of us crashing into each other near the back of the now upturned ship.

"Eugh..." I groaned, rubbing my aching head.

"What is that thing?!" Luffy shouted, clutching tightly onto the side railings of the Merry while it slowly worked on stabilizing itself.

The four of us looked ahead to find ourselves staring at a vessel that wasn't there before, floating around in front of us. The barge was very unique, looking to be made entirely of metallic materials and nothing else. It was also _very _big, towering over the Merry with easy effort.

"What the hell is that? Is it a ship?" Zoro demanded.

"I've never seen a ship look quite like _that_ before." I replied as I pulled myself to a wobbly stand.

Another area of the ocean began to rumble once again, coming directly from in front of the other ship. We watched carefully as what appeared to be the hull of the metal ship protrude from the waters. Attached to the top was the vessel's figurehead; a hippo wearing a crown of nobility.

A flicker of black caught in the corner of my eye directly afterward, and my sights traveled upward from the figurehead to notice a jolly roger being ran up the top of the ships main mast.

"Oh crap! It's a pirate ship!" Usopp squealed.

"It's huge!" Luffy gaped at the boat in its complete presentation. Zoro, on the other hand, was not so glorified by the powerful sight.

"Great. Just when we needed to hurry." he glowered.

The sound of a man's rough, throaty laugh intercepted our thoughts just then. From where the four of us stood below, neither of us could tell who the voice belonged to, but by the sounds of him, this man didn't seem like he would be of any ally to us.

"What's the matter?" he started, his amusement kept evident through his voice. "Don't tell me our underwater raid ship, the Tin Tyrant surprised you."

The sound of numerous guns clicking off their safety filled in our surroundings, and my lips parted open. Before anybody had realized, several of the man's henchmen had snuck aboard the Merry, and were now holding all of us at gun point. I could feel a coarse hand from one of the goons gripping onto my shoulder, and the hard, cold metal of what could only be the barrel of his gun pressing into the back of my skull. I gulped. We all froze still as a grim silence now rang through the frigid air.

"Hey! What's going on?" Sanji called, his black dress shoes clunking across the wooden deck boards as he ran for outside. Sensing the danger, no doubt.

"Sanji! Don't come out here!" I shouted.

Upon reaching the scene, the blonde swiftly froze in his tracks. First, he looked at us. Then, he looked at the intruders. Effectively adding him to their list of hostages, their guns, hungry for death and bloodshed, now turned on him. His deep blue eyes flicked to the large, metal ship in the distance before the mental gears in his head came to a stop. Calmly, wordlessly striking against his matchbox, the cook lit up a new smoke and put it to his lips; taking a deep, long drag.

And then he opened his mouth to speak, as casually as one would discuss the weather. "So, what's going on?"

Luffy spoke first. "Well, we're under attack. And it's still snowing."

"Well yeah, the guns pointing in my face kinda gave that one away. What next?"

"I told you to go back..." I sighed. "Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me?"

"You all consider yourself a band of pirates?" the cackling man from before spoke up. At last he'd made a point of revealing himself; posing at the forefront of his ship along with the strange guy from before, as well as a darker skinned man who appeared nothing if not tough and hot-tempered. The older captain ripped a greedy chunk out from the leg of meat in his hand; his mouth hung open without a care in the world as he chowed down on the food. "That's amusing, I only count four of ya."

As if his vulgar attitude wasn't off-putting enough, without any warning the man bit down on a knife in his other hand, snapping the jagged blade in two with his teeth. The delirious action sent us all to a whole new level of disturbed.

"What the-?!" I grimaced. "Did.. did he just eat-"

"Looks like it." Zoro replied, not taking his eyes off the barbaric figure.

"Sort of strange..." the guy drawled between chews. "That your group would have so few members."

We could only gawk at him as he continued to eat away at the once usable weapon, as if such a materialistic object could possibly be edible.

"Kay, that's just weird. What kinda guy likes to eat knives?" Luffy inquired, clearly unsettled.

Usopp shut his eyes. "Gah! My gums are bleeding just watching!"

The man hopped off his vessel, making his way over to the Straw Hat's ship until we met him face to face. Seeing him from this close, I noticed he was rather plump and round. His chubby body was covered in various plates of armor - possibly made from the same material as his so called 'Tin Tyrant'. A thick white cape wrapped around his shoulders, it's hood popped up over his large head to protect him from the harsh temperatures.

Even though his approach implied calm, casual, willing to negotiate... something in the way this man's eyes looked into ours had my nerves growing tense. He was standing atop one of the Merry's side ledges, and I silently wondered to myself if there was any way I could somehow manage to get over there quick enough to push the big oaf overboard.

"Alright, I'll keep this simple. See, my men and I wish to travel to Drum Kingdom. You wouldn't happen to have an eternal pose or a log pose, would you?"

"Nope, can't help." Sanji shrugged.

"Even if we did, there's no way we'd give you one after pointing several guns to our heads. Idiot." I scoffed, and Usopp cringed at my bold response.

"Hey now! Let's try to avoid ruffling any feathers, okay!?"

"Hmph." I crossed my arms bitterly.

Sanji continued to speak, maintaining his calm approach. "Sorry, but I've never even heard of any 'Drum Kingdom'."

"Well, now that we've got that all settled, would you guys just leave already?" Luffy huffed. "We're in a hurry. We don't have time to deal with all this."

"You'll never enjoy life if you're always in a rush, but if you have neither pose, what can be done?" the stranger raised a finger. "I suppose I'll have to settle for your treasure on this ship."

"Huh?!" the captain glared.

"First things first; I'm feeling a bit hungry."

The large man smirked after this particular response, and everyone stared in horror as the man promptly began to eat parts of the ship. Bit by bit, the guy tore off large chunks of wood from the Merry and began to chow down. _Wood. From the Merry. _

"He's a ship eating monster!" Usopp freaked out.

"This is even weirder than him eating the knife..." I shivered in disgust, my eyes growing wide. This guy's eating habits were seriously messed up.

Luffy shouted, enraged. "Hey! Our ship isn't your lunch!"

Lunging forward, Straw Hat readied his hand into a fist; getting himself ready to remind the man _exactly_ who owned this turf, until the strangers men stopped him.

"Be quiet!" they barked, holding Luffy back by the barrels of their guns. "Wapol doesn't like to be disturbed while he's eating!"

"Shut up!" Luffy growled, stretching his arms over the thugs heads until his knuckles collided with both of their skulls. The captain knocked them down easily, as if they were nothing but bowling pins.

"Damn pirate," one of them grumbled, rubbing their face painfully. All the armed lackeys on the ship switched their guns aim to the straw hat boy. "We're under attack. Shoot him!"

I gasped. "No!"

The sound of multiple bullets whizzed past my ears at a violent speed, and I actively struggled against the intruders' holds. A fierce dread bubbled up within me as I jerked my arms about in efforts to break free and warn the boy of a fate that was, probably, already too late for him to escape from.

"LUFFY!"

Remarkably, the crew didn't exactly share the same concern as me. Instead, the first mate flashed a wide, preying smirk as he let his blanket fall from his shoulders, his fingers dancing around the hilt of his swords with a feather light touch. "Now things are finally starting to get interesting."

Sanji chuckled lowly as he started to pull his scarf from his neck. "Perfect. This is more like it."

I gawked at them, appalled by their lack of worry. "_Zoro! Sanji!_"

"Relax, just watch." The swordsman reassured, jerking his head in the direction of his captain. With a frown I looked back to the rubber boy, expecting to see him bloody and perished.

But instead, I witnessed something extraordinary.

All of the bullets that should have pierced through his body instead got swallowed up within his skin, the same way a net would catch a butterfly. Each bullet stretched parts of his body outwards, sending multiple sections of flesh dragging out into long, narrow strings. The sections continued to grow longer and longer, until each and every piece of ammo was sent springing in the other direction right off Luffy's form. The bullets came boomeranging back towards the very goons who'd shot them, and several of the men were left struggling to defend themselves. I wasn't sure how to react.

"The bullets... they..."

"Bullets don't work on me!" Luffy set free a roar, turning on the men who tried to attack him. His angered limbs stretched and the boy struck a series of powerful punches every possible direction, leaving the goons alert and defenseless.

"Stop it! Can't we discuss this?!" Usopp exclaimed, cowering behind the ship's mast.

"Shouldn't take anything you can't handle." Sanji smirked back in return.

More intruders began advancing on the cook, and he responded by simply wedging his cigarette back in place between his teeth, and preparing to assist his captain in combat. Lifting his thigh ever so slowly, with the same power you'd find in a kick boxing champion, the blonde took out numerous lackeys one by one in a series of powerful blows from his legs. One of the cook's attacks ended up being so strong that the power from his kick resulted in sending some men tumbling backwards. They staggered so far their backs slammed hard in to the ship's mast; nearly sandwiching Usopp against it in the process.

With swift momentum, Zoro came striking down from the crows nest above with his three blades at the ready. Eager to join in on the fun, the swordsman effectively carried out his sneak attack and had already succeeded in cutting down quite a few foes. His predacious eyes flared in satisfaction.

"Hmph, all bark no bite."

At the expense of witnessing the impressive brawling between the three men together, I was merely left staring in awe.

"These guys, they're... amazing!"

I would have loved to stand by and further watch the boys do their business; it had been a long time since I'd come across a round of pirates who were as strong as these three... but there were still other men hoarding the ship, and some of them now had their sights set on me.

"Let's get the redhead outta the way, she's a tiny little thing."

"Heh, you know what that means. Easy prey."

I grinned devilishly, giving my hands a good flexing. "Right. It's my turn to help out now."

I listened for the sound of the men's footsteps behind me. The sound of their boots clanking against the deck gradually grew in volume, and then...

"Surprise!" I turned around, grinning as I grabbed the air in my palms and threw two overwhelming hurtles of wind in their direction. The force was more than enough to knock them off their feet and crash into the side of the Merry. The goons were left a tangled mess, grunting in pain and gasping for air, as the impact ensued in knocking their own wind out of them.

I walked over, and one of the men looked to me, breathing heavy and clutching desperately onto his torso. A result of my attack costing his ribs a mild fracture, I assumed.

He glared at me in question. "Y..You're... you're a devil fruit eater?"

"A word of advice," I teased, smirking ruthlessly. "The small ones are often the most dangerous."

And with that, I wasted no time in throwing him and the others overboard.

"Hey!" one of them growled, turning to his leader. "Wapol, we need help!"

The man, Wapol, appeared to be ignoring their pleas. He said nothing as he continued to munch on the ship's foundations.

Luffy had enough. With vicious temperament, Straw Hat marched himself over to Wapol, carelessly throwing his men who tried blocking his path, out of the way. "You're still eating?!"

"Your ship doesn't taste half bad."

That comment had sent the captain's blood boiling. "HEY, YOU!" he exploded.

Finally, Wapol turned to look at him. His lackey's chuckled coolly.

"You fool. You're no match for Wapol."

"Now you'll be eaten by the power of the munch-munch fruit!"

"Munch-munch fruit?" I parroted. "Well, that explains those funky eating habits..."

Luffy paid no mind to their taunts, not giving half a damn about anything those men had to say. He only continued to march toward Wapol. He was in such a blind rage at the time, that I wasn't entirely sure if the rubber man even noticed when the supposed munching man opened his mouth wide enough to trap Luffy's head within his jaws. The sick freak was preparing to bite his head clean off.

Usopp called after him. "Luffy, no!"

But it was too late. Wapol had already crunched his teeth back together, with Luffy's neck firmly wedged in between.

In the midst of all the mayhem, Vivi decided to walk on the scene. As soon as she laid eyes on the captain, she staggered in her footsteps, her mouth gaping.

"What's this?" she demanded.

"Vivi?!" I turned frantic. "This isn't exactly the best time to be going for a walk on deck, you know?"

Sanji turned to the girl, strangely casual. "Oh, hey there Vivi. Everything okay with Nami?"

Before she could answer, all of our attention switched back to Luffy when we noticed his arms begin to stretch out behind him. Personally, I was left thoroughly confused as to how the man could still possibly be conscious.

"I'd prefer someone less chewy." Wapol commented, struggling to work his set of teeth against Luffy's skin.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head, and I realized there was no way Luffy could be eaten.

"Because he's rubber..." I concluded, a smile slowly spreading over my lips. Yet again this goofy rubber man continues to take me by surprise.

A wicked growl sounded from the back of Luffy's throat while his lanky arms continued to stretch behind him. Traveling far beyond the ship, soon enough his limbs were lost in the distance of our surroundings; stretching beyond what one could see from our standing.

"Just how far can this guy stretch his body?!" I exclaimed.

Once the captain felt his arms reach their maximum elasticity, he immediately proceeded with his attack and let go a fearless shout from inside Wapol's jaws.

"I SAID... LEAVE!" he screamed as his arms came catapulting forward. Straw Hat's fists came shooting back at a speed my eyes could barely keep up with, piercing straight into Wapol's gut so hard he crumpled in on himself, breaking out into a period of violent coughing, setting free Luffy's head in the process. The man was sent flying off the ship from the force of Luffy's punch, off to some part of the Grand Line far from where the Merry lay it's anchor. We were safe.

For the most part, at least. Wapol's men were still on the Merry, though they didn't appear as much of a threat anymore. The vast majority of them were too stunned to dare trying anything. They were left without words by the sight of Luffy's power and feeling seemingly vulnerable with their precious leader now out of commission.

"That was amazing! Way to go, Luffy!" I cheered, bouncing on my heels and spinning around with enthusiasm.

"Recall the troops! We gotta go rescue Wapol before he sinks to the bottom! Go, go, go!" one of the men from the Tin Tyrant shouted. All of the lackeys piled up towards the front of the Merry, where an escape ladder connected to their own ship awaited them. At last, the group finally decided to cooperate with us and make their retreat.

We all watched the crowd disappear one by one up the ladder leading them into a tunnel within the mouth of their fancy hippo shaped figurehead. As soon as they regrouped on the great vessel, the opposing crew jumped to work at top speed, preparing the ship to sail as far out of our range as they could. The strange man from before – the one who could stand upon the sea, marched his way to the front of the Tyrant. His calm demeanor from before had morphed into something much more furious.

"This is far from over! You'll pay, I promise you'll pay!" he spat.

"You're dead, you rats!" The tough guy next to him thrust a muscular finger in our direction. Both the individuals voices boomed loudly, despite the now generous distance between their ship and the Straw Hat's.

"You'd better hope Wapol doesn't die!"

"Or it's _your_ blood we'll spill! Remember that! We'll get you for this!"

I couldn't help but laugh at the whole irony of the situation; being threatened by a group of men who at the same time were fleeing for their own safety. Their actions didn't quite match up with their words.

As their ship faded from view, just barely apparent over the distant horizon, I flashed a cheeky smile and waved in their direction. "Bye bye!"

And at long last, our surroundings had finally grown quiet.

"Wow," Usopp reprieved, grateful of our new found peace. "Crazy... those guys are really upset. What were they calling that old garbage can? Wapol?"

"Who cares about what his name was?" Sanji shrugged. "Don't worry about it, the guys obviously a moron. It's best to just forget about it."

"...I know him." Vivi uttered, catching our attention as she pressed a nimble finger to her lips.

"What? Seriously?" I looked over her pensive, unwavering expression. The princess nodded, her brows knitting together in deep thought.

"I know him, but from where...?"

* * *

A few hours had fluttered by since Wapol's ambush, and the sun was well on it's way to parting ways with the sky. The ship sailed on steady throughout the rest of the day, and yet again, there was no island in sight. Only more icebergs and cold, dry air.

Zoro returned to his lookout duties, camping out in the crows nest for most of the day, while the rest of the crew made their business elsewhere. Most everyone was inside. Keeping themselves warm and watching over Nami, of course. I decided to stay outside with my troubled thoughts. I wasn't sure if I was ready to see just how bad the navigator's illness had increased. At least not yet.

Sounds of ship repairs took place of the silence as I looked off into the sunset, watching the small puffs of air that escaped my parted lips dance and disperse into new oxygen. I didn't know how long I'd been standing around in the cold. Fretfully nibbling on my bottom lip, I turned to where Usopp was currently hard at work patching up the Merry, and slowly strolled over to his side.

"...Hey."

"...Myra?" the sniper looked up to me in question, while my eyes narrowed upon my toes. "What's the deal, you need something?"

"I just... you need any help?"

"You don't have to do that. I told you before, it's alright-"

The man suddenly froze, stopping himself before he could finish. His puffy lips pressed into a tight line as soon as he noticed my awkward posture. I think there may have been something about the way I held myself that made it clear to him that I wasn't holding my arms because of the cold, but a reasoning far more complex; because after that abrupt pause in his speech, Usopp merely let go a weak sigh, making his next response in a gentler tone.

"...Sure."

I smiled gratefully, accepting the hammer he held out to me and grabbing myself a fresh plank of wood. A few minutes of silence ticked past while the two of us worked on the ship, restoring as much missing parts of it as we could, until...

"...Do you think she's going to be okay?" I asked, my voice coming out small. Usopp spared a moment to look at me. "I haven't known her very long, but still... I can't help but feel concerned, you know?"

Usopp's eyes squinted against the wood in his hands. His jaw clenched and he bowed his head. "It's hard to tell. At this point, we can only hope."

I paused in my actions and stared at the sniper for a long moment after that, his words resonating within me. "Hope, huh... now where have I heard that before?" I let go the softest of chuckles and a tiny, half-hearted smile took place in my expression.

"You know..." Usopp started, not taking his eyes off his work. "You were pretty impressive back there, during that ambush. If not a little scary."

"_Let's get the redhead outta the way, she's a tiny little thing."_

_The sharpshooter swiftly turned in the direction of the thug's voice._

"_Heh, you know what that means. Easy prey."_

_'Crap..! Myra's in trouble!' the sniper trembled as he skimmed a shaky hand over his slingshot. _

"_I..." he gulped. "I should do something..."_

_Several seconds passed by, and Usopp failed to spot any sign of me. Remaining hidden behind the mast, his eyes anxiously scanned all over the deck, searching for any clue of my person. _

"_Dammit, where is she?! Did they get her?" Usopp muttered hastily to himself._

_Just then, a flash of crimson hair fluttered in his view. _

"_A word of advice..." I started, grabbing the injured thug by his collar. "The small ones are often the most dangerous."_

_Usopp watched in startled shock as he witnessed me push the group of men over the ship's edge without a second thought, their shrieks dimming from loud to soft in volume, and ending with a faint 'sploosh' that could only be their bodies colliding with the freezing ocean's surface._

He chuckled a tad nervously. "You were like a whole other person. I gotta admit, I didn't think you had it in you."

After a long pause, an underlying sorrow had etched itself into my smile.

"Yeah... once upon a time, neither did I."

This time, Usopp gave me his full attention, sensing the sudden drop in my mood.

"I wasn't always so... brutal, you know."

A period of hesitation cascaded over Usopp, before carefully opening his mouth.

"What... happened to you, in the navy?"

A flicker of a memory passed through my mind if only for a second, before I quickly squashed it, not wishing to remember. Returning a tense grip on the hammer in my palm, I said nothing more as I continued to help Usopp with the repairs.

Sufficiently taking the hint, the sniper decided not to press the topic any further, and kept silent out of respect for as long as we worked away on the Merry together. A response I was greatly appreciative of.

* * *

Their voices came out muffled through the door.

"This isn't good. The sun's about to set and she's still the same."

"Yeah... maybe it'd be best if we drop anchor somewhere."

Taking a deep breath, I gently pushed open the door to the women's quarters. A comfortable warmth enveloped me, causing my face to turn a rosy shade from the temperature change. Cautiously I stepped forward, preparing to ask about Nami's condition, when out of the blue my foot stumbled over a body. My blue eyes bulging open, a squeak sounded in the back of my throat while my body teetered forward, struggling to regain it's former balance. Fully confused, I looked down to seek out the culprit... and there Luffy was.

_Why am I not surprised? _I sent a soft, pitying grin down at the collapsed boy.

"Hey, guys? Why is Luffy taking a cat nap on the floor of the girls bedroom?"

"Oh, Myra. It's you." Vivi acknowledged. I joined her and Sanji at Nami's bedside, my smile paling.

"So... she's still the same, huh?"

"Yeah..." Sanji answered.

I looked over the navigator, her face as flushed as ever. She'd been panting heavily and generating enough sweat to fill a tub, just like the last time I'd checked up on her. Only this time, she looked progressively worse. Solemnly, I sighed.

"It's been some days now... I figured we would have at least reached an island by tonight."

I felt a gentle hand rest on my shoulder suddenly, and turned my gaze away from Nami for just a single, curious moment. Looking to my right, my eyes met with Sanji's staring back into mine, his expression soft and comforting.

"We'll get there." he reassured.

I frowned deeply. "Do you.. really believe that?"

I wasn't entirely sure if I was asking him or myself that question, but when the blonde's features turned confident with a nod of his head, I had to admit the whole situation felt very nostalgic. This crew had every right to be worried sick over their navigator, and yet, they built themselves their own blind faith which had strengthened their resolve enough to remain calm. Their positive attitudes very much reminded me of some people I used to know. People that I'd cared about very much.

Every member of this little pirate crew held a belief so strong in their hearts; they _would_ find a doctor, and Nami would be saved. Even though the reality of their situation looks anything but promising, not one of them believed even for a second that they would fail in their search.

And here I was. What was wrong with me? As I stood here on my heels, staring into this man's soothing expression which bored into mine, entrapping me, determined to wash away my troubles... I couldn't help but think, what was I doing? This isn't who I am. I used to be someone who'd practically burst at the seams with life, shining my hopes and dreams onto others and spreading my happiness around to anyone that needed it. That was all I knew. Have I become nothing but an empty shell?

What happened to _my _hope?

* * *

"_Myra, listen to me. The world, it can sometimes be a very cruel place. But there's one thing you must never let yourself forget; so long as you stay bright even in times of great darkness , you will always find your way on the right path."_

"_'Stay bright?' What do you mean by that, papa?"_

"_No matter what you might go through, as long as you hold onto your hope, there will always be something good found in this world. Do that, and you'll always find yourself a reason to smile."_

"_So I'll never be sad? Okay, then I'll shine so hard I'll turn into a star! No, wait, a billion stars!"_

"_Heheh, hey, slow down. Shine too bright and you just might make all the boys fall in love with your radiance."_

"_What's a radiance?"_

"_Hah! Aren't you supposed to be a writer? I thought you knew big words like these!"_

"_Papa! No fair, quit teasing me!_

* * *

"Myra? Myra, are you alright?"

The distant sound of Vivi's voice came back into focus, snapping me out of my reverie. Both her and Sanji were left looking at me with concern.

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm fine, I just..." I grinned softly, genuinely, as my mind searched for words.

_No, this isn't who I am. _

I shook my head at my own foolishness. "You're right, Sanji. You and Usopp both."

_That's right._

I looked back to Nami, crouching down to her level, and my smile grew.

_I'll never let go of my faith._

"I'm sure we'll find her a doctor."

Vivi eyed me for a moment, a smile apparent on her face before she looked to the window. "It's getting dark, we should start preparing to retire for the night."

"Sure." Sanji followed after the princess.

Still kneeling by Nami's bedside, I propped my elbows up on the mattress. I was so focused on the ill woman that I'd barely noticed the other two moving out. Vivi and Sanji both stared at me from the doorway.

"Myra? Are you coming?" the young woman called, making me jump.

"Oh, um.. no thanks." I smiled, making a point of rubbing my eyes. "I'm feeling pretty tired myself, actually. So I think I'll stay here."

They shared a look before smiling toward me in understanding. Once they left, I snatched a nearby stool and pulled it up to Nami's bedside, making myself comfortable as I'd planned to watch over the redhead for a long while. As I gazed upon her sleeping form, her heaving chest rose and fell in an uneven rhythm that was strangely hypnotic to me.

And before I knew, my eyelids had grown heavy.

* * *

I spent the next morning sitting myself in the desk of the girls room, quill in hand, scratching inked words across parchment as Nami rested behind me. Luffy chose to sit next to her bed today, with Vivi's bird accompanying him. He watched over his navigator with earnest intent. In an effort to lift her spirits, the captain tried stretching and contorting his face around into several different silly expressions. Though it was clearly apparent Nami was too far gone to even pay attention to the man. Nevertheless, I thought it was sweet of him to try.

Taking a short break, I returned my pen to its inkwell to grab the muffin from the little plate Sanji had previously set down for me, and rotated in my seat just in time to spot Zoro walking in the room. Approaching Luffy was his first mistake. As soon as the captain turned around to face him, the swordsman shrieked wildly in his own skin upon seeing the straw hat boy's warped face covered in patterns of paint crazy enough to startle the stoic man.

"Gah! Quit it, will ya? You're freaking me out!"

I'd erupted into fits of laughter, almost choking on a portion of my breakfast. "The almighty pirate hunter Zoro, afraid of a little funny face?"

Green hair's face switched to mine, flustered and snappish. "Oh, shut up! It was unexpected."

"Talk about a wake up call." I continued to giggle, until a voice from outside cried out in dire urgency.

"ISLAND DEAD AHEAD!"

"An island?" I perked up.

"Are you serious?" Luffy's voice lifted, bouncing around in his seat excitedly. He glanced back at Nami, ecstatic. "Oooh, an island! We've found an island! Nami, did you hear that? This means we can get you to a real doctor! He'll fix you up. Wake up! Wake.. up! Wake.. up! Wake...-"

"Just go already. I've got her covered." Zoro interjected.

"Somebody's eager." I teased, even though I'd shared the same feeling as the captain. Yearning to set my sights on the new island, with a snatch of my coat I jet off outside after Luffy with utmost swiftness.

Luffy bee-lined it to the figurehead as usual, looked onward, and howled with joy. "There it is! Nami's saved!"

Thrilled as I ran to his side, I could see the mountainous, snowy terrain in the distance. My face brightened, exhaling. "What a relief! And we can finally get off our sea legs!"

"All white... it's snow. A snow island." Luffy marveled at the view, nearly choking up.

"Woah Luffy. Wait." Sanji halted, sliding down the ladder of the crows nest. "Just so there's no misunderstanding between us; we're stopping to find Nami a doctor. We're not here to have an adventure. Are we clear?"

Naturally, Luffy didn't register a word the blonde said. "I love snow... it's so white."

"It's no use... he's gone." Sanji sighed.

"H-Hold on!" Usopp trembled. "You sure this is a good idea? There could be snow monsters! Besides, we don't even know if there's people there or not."

"Well, let's hope so." I raised a pointed brow. "This is the only island we've seen for days, and we need Nami cured as quick as possible."

_And I've burdened you all long enough, staying here. _I thought, finishing the point in my mind.

Usopp put on a show of violent coughing. "Oh no, I'm having a relapse of I-can't-go-to-the-island disease!" he choked out, clutching his throat dramatically.

Luffy wondrously clasped his hands together, still in awe of the snowy landscape awaiting our arrival. "Ah, snow... it's so white and beautiful."

"Guess I'll get ready for the inevitable." Sanji shrugged as the ship cruised down the coast line and into the island territory.

As we sailed down the icy river, huge mounds of snow became visible. They clumped against each other in ample, white chunks along the ground. Any snow that wasn't resting directly on the land found it's home atop the branches of numerous evergreen trees that scattered among each other in vast quantities. The large pine forests seemed to vegetate most of the land.

"I'm so happy! Look at the snow!"

"Has he never seen snow before?" I sweatdropped, resting a hand on my cheek in amusement as I watched the captain dance around in elation.

"Probably not this much of it, I'm assuming." Vivi replied, pulling up next to me for the first time that morning. I smiled in greeting while looking over our surroundings.

"You have a point... this island's definitely the true definition of 'winter wonderland'."

"Look at those mountains..." Sanji gestured forward. "They're unlike anything I've ever seen."

The lot of us adjusted our view to find the said mountains the cook had been referring to, and my cerulean eyes had soon met with a trio of mountains far off in the distant background of the winter island's scenery. Just as Sanji pointed out, they were indeed shaped rather peculiar for mountains. Instead of the general highland slope, each mountain had possessed it's own perfectly flat top.

"How does a mountain even form like that? It looks almost like they were man-made." I pursed my lips in curiosity.

"Say Luffy, aren't you cold dressed like that?" Usopp looked to his captain, who was still in nothing but his thin red vest and jean capris.

"It's ten degrees below freezing out here. That's when bears get ready to hibernate!" Vivi exclaimed, creating wide gestures with her arms to emphasize her point.

"Hm?" The rubber man spared a moment to stare at us. It took him a few slow moments before his body finally reacted to it's sensations, and snapped into a violent shiver. Luffy clutched onto himself tight, his teeth chattering. "Cold!"

"You just figured that out?!" both the sniper and the cook snapped.

Not long after that, the ship had finally approached the end of the river. As we neared the edge of the island grounds, the men got to work on dropping the anchor while the rest of us prepared to disembark.

Standing ground next to Vivi and I, Zoro called over to the rest of the crew. "Okay guys. Doctor search, who wants in?"

"I'm in!" Luffy raised his hand (of course), and Sanji did the same.

"Me too."

"Oh! I wanna come!" My hand shot upward, more than willing.

From a distant part of the ship, Usopp waved to us as if he were seeing us off to war. Clearly the wimp was too chicken to step foot anywhere near the unknown territory. "Alright, go have fun!"

"That's far enough, pirates!"

Our gazes shifted up to the cliff hanging over the riverbed, and for the second morning in a row, we'd been surrounded by a collection of people pointing loaded guns at our faces. The islanders glared upon us threateningly, burning their guarded eyes into our forms.

"People. Well, that was easy."

Usopp scoffed in response to his captain. "Yeah, nice. But they don't seem too friendly."

One of the men stepped forward, his aim on us unshakable. "I'll only say this once; your kind is not welcome here. Leave immediately."

"We only came here to find a doctor." Luffy assured.

"We have someone who's sick!"

"You'll have to do better than that!" another man jeered at the princess. "We don't fall for that old trick!"

"This is our island! We wont let any filthy pirates land here!"

"Raise anchor and leave now, or we'll blow you and your ship out of the water!"

Sanji frowned. "That's great... we barely said hello and they already hate us."

"Get outta here!" another man shouted, trying desperately to hide his intense fear. Without thinking the man acted purely on impulse, pulling on the trigger of his shot gun without any real sense of aim. My body twitched at the sudden noise.

"Look out!" Usopp barked at the cook once he noticed the gun's aim pointing in his direction. Fortunately, the bullet just barely missed him, piercing through the deck near Sanji's foot at an alarmingly close distance. He was lucky not to have lost a toe or two.

However, that didn't mean the man's reckless action didn't set the cook's temper off.

"That was a _big_ mistake." he growled threateningly, marching himself in the direction of the culprit.

"Sanji, stop!" Vivi pleaded, stepping in front of the blonde in a daring attempt to hold him back.

And then, it happened.

My eyes wandered to the same man who'd just nearly jabbed a bullet in the cook's foot, and what I'd seen caused my stomach to flip. In just a matter of a couple seconds, I witnessed the man raise his gun a second time, his hands trembling hard. Slowly, he aimed his weapon in the direction of Sanji and Vivi, who were too engrossed in their wrestling match to notice they were being targeted. I watched his finger graze over the trigger.

I tried to warn the others. "Guys, watch out! MOVE!"

But just like Usopp... I wasn't fast enough.

The bullet went straight through Vivi's body.

My jaw hung open in shock when I saw the princess' chocolate eyes bug out of her skull, no doubt from the pain. "VIVI-" my voice started to scream, until my lungs felt themselves at a loss for air as I watched the woman's body crumple to the ground. I slapped a hand over my mouth in horror."...Oh my god..."

Somewhere from behind me, I could hear Luffy's distraught screaming the second Vivi's body dropped with a final, conclusive thud. "VIVIIII!"

Zoro instantly readied a firm grasp on his swords, preparing to defend should the armed strangers come to strike. From where I stood, the bullet looked to have punctured Vivi's heart. She could very well be gone already. An innocent woman, dead. Before she could even fulfill the promise she swore to her country. My own heart filled with anguish.

What did she ever do to deserve this?

"I-Is... Is she..." my voice strained, coming out muffled underneath my hand before fading off entirely. I couldn't bring myself to finish that sentence, to say that last word.

Luffy snapped on the men in a powerful rage. "Why, you...!"

This time, all islanders raised their weapons. "Ready... aim..."

Straw Hat ignored them, focused only on charging himself toward the man who shot Vivi, with a tight fist raised and ready to attack.

Until he was stopped in his tracks.

"Luffy, stop it!" out spoke a woman's voice. Vivi's voice. "Fighting is not going to help anything!"

All our heads spun to the princess currently holding back the raging captain, surprised and relieved to see her still in one piece. My eyes flicked to a particular tear in the sleeve of her coat that wasn't there before, and I took note of the fresh, deep red blood now staining her white fleece.

"I'm fine, Luffy. It only grazed my arm." Vivi ensured, turning to the villagers at once and dropping to her hands and knees. "It's alright, we won't land." she placed her head on the deck, her voice pressing with a desperate urgency. "But can you please call us a doctor? Our friend is dying from a serious illness. I'm begging you! Please, help us."

Luffy glanced over her, stunned and uncharacteristically quiet. "Vivi..."

"...You are not fit to be the captain of this ship, Luffy." Vivi lectured, her voice harsh. "Not everything can be fixed by rushing to start a fight. You can't get into a fight here."

The blood from her bullet wound had started trickling down her bicep and dripping onto the deck, but she chose to ignore it.

"Think about Nami. What would happen to her?"

"She says that, even though she now has a serious problem of her own..." I observed, watching the princess in awe and admiration. "She's a real selfless girl, isn't she..?"

Luffy watched the blue haired woman for a considerable amount of time, before letting go a heavy sigh, his lips pressing into a thin line. "...Yeah. Right. I'm sorry about that." he kneeled himself before the villagers, joining Vivi in her formal pleading. "Please, help us. Call a doctor. Our friend needs you."

The crowd of people were reduced to halting their weapons, hesitant and unsure of what to do next. I figured they weren't very used to having pirates grovel at their feet.

Finally, a man clothed in a thick green parka stepped forward. "I'll show you to our village. Follow me." he instructed, tucking his shotgun away and signaling the others to follow suit. We all let go an express of relief.

"Great, so they won't kill us after all." I chuckled faintly.

Vivi lifted her head, sending looks of gratitude to the backs of the surrendering villagers. "See?" she grinned down at Luffy. "Just ask politely."

"Yeah," the captain mirrored her expression. "You're incredible, Vivi."

_Yeah, she is... _I thought to myself, a tiny smile winking at the corners of my mouth while I watched the pair help each other to their feet. _She really is._

Despite her country's current hardships, the people of Alabasta were very lucky. They were lucky, because they had someone like Vivi in their noble family. A selfless, brave, and compassionate princess who only knew how to fight for what was right.

She would make a truly great ruler, one day.

* * *

**agh, this chapter took longer than I expected. I'm sorry, just been real busy with life and things... BUT, better late than never ^^" hope you enjoyed, fave/follow/review if you wish!**


	8. Corruption

**Chapter 8: Corruption**

* * *

_Drum Island: Evergreen Forest, 10:24 am_

A comfortable silence lingered through the air as we followed the man in green, now acting as our guide through the forest grounds. Instead of just Luffy, Sanji and I, the whole group had fled to pursue the island; save for Zoro, who chose to stay behind to watch over Carue and the ship.

"_This island's climate could make for good atmosphere to train. You guys go on ahead, I'll stick around here and catch up later."_

I couldn't for the life of me understand how a blustery, blizzarding climate like this would make for a good training ground. If anything, I imagined the man would slip on a patch of ice in the middle of weight lifting and stub a toe on his oversized dumbells. But I nodded in agreement anyway, giving off the impression that I at least understood any of the weird thoughts running through that swordsman's brain.

The snow was even deeper than it appeared observing from the ship. The thick, sparkling blankets plunged at least two feet deep, swallowing up my black combat boots and pooling around my calves with each step I took. With a shiver, I popped my furry, brown hood up, shielding my face from the harsh north wind that had just recently picked up.

"Yeesh, maybe I should have worn more on the legs than these thin grey pants. This is more snow than I ever could have imagined. Makes me wonder how the people here manage to put up with it."

Vivi chuckled softly. "I'm sure they're used to it, being around this weather everyday."

"Yeah," I smiled, my eyes twinkling in the winter daylight. "It sure is pretty here, though... very peaceful."

The man leading us grinned to himself then, mumbling something just barely coherent under his breath. "If only the villagers could feel the same way."

"Oh? Did you say something?"

"Nothing." He shook his head at me. I was left staring into the back of his head, silent and inquisitive.

"Anyway," he continued. "There is one thing I feel I should warn you folks about. The only doctor we have here is actually a witch."

"Huh? A witch?" Usopp repeated, skeptical.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Sanji grunted against his smoke. He'd been panting softly, exhausted from having to trek through the deep snow with Nami's weight on his back. "Everything about this island is messed up. What do you people call this weird place anyway?"

"Actually, this land still doesn't have a name."

Vivi tipped her head. "An island without a name? I didn't know that was possible."

Somehow the princess' words set off something in the man, and he grew quiet, his jaw set rigid. He was about to open his mouth to respond, until a hysterical shriek from the sharpshooter took place of his answer instead.

"A BEAR!"

"What?! Where?" I spun, but instead of answering, Usopp refrained from his wild flailing to throw himself onto the snowy ground.

"Hurry everyone, pretend to be dead!"

Just then, a quiet, but beastly grunt prompted our eyes forward, and we noticed a large white form stalking toward us. The bear looked to be holding a large ice axe in it's hand.

"Oh, it's so cute~!" I cooed, and Usopp stared at me like I was a mad woman.

"You think it's cute?!"

"But, why is it holding tools in it's hand like a human? Last I checked, bears didn't have opposable thumbs."

"Hey! Quit ignoring me!"

"A hiking bear. He poses no threat." the man in green educated. "Don't forget to bow, it's proper manners."

"Wait, really?" I questioned, though bowing along with the group anyway. "So I'm guessing they worship large animals here too...?" I whispered to myself, bewildered.

We continued to pad our thick boots along the cold trail, until finally, our guide had stopped in his tracks at last.

"Alright, we've reached the end of the forest now. Get ready."

Carefully weaving my body through the final web of evergreen branches, my cobalt eyes grew in wonder at the sight of the village. The roads were cleanly plowed to make for comfortable walking, and the cone-shaped rooftops of every building rested under thick layers of freshly fallen snow. Some villagers were seen strolling around with snow shoes or hiking equipment in hand, and anyone not walking on their feet were making their ways around town on the backs of various different animals; some big, some small, some with horns, and some with wide, hairy snouts the likes of which I'd ever seen.

"This is the village where we live. It's name is Bighorn."

Luffy peered around with vast interest. "Look at all the weird animals walking around everywhere."

"Well yeah, this _is_ a snow country." Usopp returned.

I was like a little kid, all excitement bursting from within me as I bounced around on my heels. "I've never seen winter animals before, this is so amazing!"

"Really? Not even once?" the sniper looked at me in surprise. I shook my head vigorously, eyes wide in my dreamy reverie.

"Where I come from, I lived on an island with a tropical climate all year round. Since coming to the Grand Line, I _have _had the lucky opportunity to see snow before, but this is my first time ever seeing a winter island up close."

"Look Nami," the cook pointed, grinning in relief. "We've made it to a village with people. We're here."

"A village with people..." I mused, with an small hint of apprehension that surprised me. "I guess this would be a good place for me to stay."

The man who'd led us here started ahead of the group again. "I advise that you all come to my house for now."

"Hey Myra, Luffy, look over there! It's one of those hiking bears."

"Again?"

"Another one?"

The pair of us turned to see the bear the sharpshooter had mentioned when instead, my eyes met with the form of a very large, tall woman walking past the three of us. Luffy and Usopp bowed hastily as she approached the man in green.

"Hello Dalton! I heard some pirates landed on the island. I hope everything is alright."

I slapped a gloved hand over my mouth at once, attempting to muffle the growing laughter bubbling out from my chest. "You dolts!" I yanked the boys back to a standing position by their coat collars. "That's a woman, not a bear."

"What?!" They screeched.

"You dumbasses!" I clutched my gut, obnoxious laughter continuing to roll off my tongue. I'd been laughing so hard, I didn't realize my body had collided with the back of a stranger. Ceasing my laughter at once, I nervously turned to face them. "Oh! I'm so sorry!"

The person only smiled, remaining calm as can be. When the girl smiled, I felt all my nervousness suddenly ebb away, and instead my mind took into account how beautiful she was. She appeared to be a woman around the same age as me, maybe even younger, with dark, charcoal hair that faded into the ghost of a grey shade. Her skin was a pure, milky white, like Vivi's. "It's alright." was all she said, before continuing on her route in soft, graceful steps.

_Pretty... _was all my mind could utter, as I watched her leave. She reminded me of a panther, the way she moved, and I wondered if that snow white complexion was common for the people who lived in this frosty, overcast land.

Behind me, the man referred to as Dalton braced his hands on the doorknob of a nearby house.

"Well then, let's head inside out of the cold, shall we?"

* * *

_Drum Island: Dalton's House, 10:44 am_

Dalton's house smelled of spicy cloves and fresh cut firewood. A collection of the heads and horns of various different animals lined the walls above, accompanied by some impressive sabers hung on display. A few hunting bows and a plentiful supply of arrows sat respectively in a nook by the front door each of us had passed through, and as I traveled further into the house, the more intense the scent of spice had lingered. My eyes fixed upon a large pot sitting upon the kitchen stove, containing what looked to me like a delicious stew.

Gently slinging Nami off his back, Sanji took extra care in keeping her supported while he scoured the small surroundings for a place to lay the woman's head.

"You can use that bed over there. I'm going to warm the place up." Dalton called to the blonde while he worked away at a fresh match. After a few strikes, a small hint of ember bloomed from the pile of wood. As the spark grew swiftly into it's roaring flame, the man pulled up from his crouched position to settle himself into a chair.

I joined him at the little dining table, grateful to give my legs the break they needed. "Nice place you have here. Very cozy."

"Thank you." Dalton sprung to his feet again, heading for his kitchen. "I'm afraid I'm running low on hot cocoa as of late, but would you care for a warm drink?"

"Oh, it's okay. You don't have to get me anything... but, if you really insist, I'd be perfectly happy with some warm milk with honey."

"Warm milk?" Sanji blinked. "That's the kinda drink you'd give to a little kid who can't fall asleep."

"Heh, yeah." I tugged at my hair awkwardly. "I guess I never outgrew it, maybe?"

The cook smirked, chuckling quietly into his cigarette at the response of my weird little quirk. I figured he was finally coming to realize that I wasn't exactly his true image of a perfect girl. Not like Nami.

"To each their own." Dalton flashed a hospitable smile as he placed a mug of sweet, warm milk in front of me. "I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Dalton, I'm the captain of the islands security squad. Please forgive our... less than friendly welcome." he turned to Vivi. "Excuse me, but may I ask you a question?"

"Hm?" the princess turned, and Dalton's eyes squinted in puzzlement.

"It's just that... you look familiar to me, for some reason."

"Er, no! I-" Vivi scrambled. "I just have one of those faces, I guess. Anyway, can you tell us more about this doctor, or witch, if that's what she is? Nami's fever has gone up to 107."

Dalton's eyes grew instantly wide. "How long has she had it?"

"It's been several days, and it just keeps getting higher."

"I see..." his mouth pressed into a frown. "She'll likely die if it gets any worse."

"Yes... but we have no idea what the illness is, much less how to treat it. We don't know how to help her."

"We've got to find a doctor as soon as possible!" Sanji demanded. "Any doctor will do. Where is this witch of yours?!"

"The witch?" Dalton strolled across the room, gesturing to the window the cook stood beside. "Do you see those mountains outside the window?"

"You mean those weirdly shaped mountains we noticed back on the ship?" I perked up from my warm mug.

Sanji started his view toward the transparent glass. "Yeah... I noticed them earlier-"

Instead of seeing the trio of mountains in the distance, the blonde caught sight of what appeared to be a monster made from snow, accompanied by a deformed snowman sidekick. Slowly, the captain and the sniper's heads popped out from behind the creations, shouting into the window from outside.

"Super massive snow man!"

"And the feared snow beast, Snowzilla!"

"Get in here before I KILL you!" Sanji roared at the pair.

I giggled. "No wonder it's so quiet in here. I didn't realize they were still outside."

Sanji sneered disapprovingly at the two boys as they trotted into the house with their tails between their legs. Once finding themselves comfortable enough on the floor, Dalton presented them with some hot drinks of their own, which they gratefully accepted.

"Anyway," the man resumed. "Those mountains out there are known as the Drum Rockies. Look closely, do you see the castle on top of the tallest one in the middle?"

"Castle?"

"That castle has lost it's king."

Sanji peered through the window once more, this time without interruption. "Yeah, I see it."

"Lost it's king?" I repeated. "You mean this island was ruled by a monarchy?"

"What's so important about the castle?" Vivi interrupted, her speech coming off tense and rushed.

"That castle is where our land's only doctor lives. Dr. Kureha. She's the one who people call here 'the witch.'"

"What?!" the cook exclaimed. "Of all places, why does she have to live on top of a mountain? We need to call her here right now. Nami needs her help!"

Dalton frowned. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid there's no way to contact her."

"You can't be serious, what kind of a doctor is she?!" Sanji turned on the man, his anger and fear growing steadily by the second.

"Please Sanji," I hushed, gently bracing my hands on the blonde's chest. "Try not to let your temper get the better of you. We'll figure something out, okay?"

Sanji looked over me for a few moments, before letting go a begrudged sigh and let his defenses fall to rest at last. Once returned back to his cool, collected self, I gave Dalton a small nod, signaling for him to continue.

"Her skills as a doctor are quite impressive, actually. However, she's an eccentrical woman. She's nearly 140 years old now."

"140?" Sanji uttered, astonished. "No wonder she doesn't get around much."

"But that makes no sense. How is that even possible?" I questioned.

Dalton's voice fell low, as if a terrible fate would fall upon whoever dared discuss the witch's wicked ways. "As I said, people call her a witch for good reason."

"What happens when people here get sick or injured? Doesn't she help them?" Vivi's gentle voice cut in.

"She comes down from the mountain whenever she feels like it. She looks around for patients, she treats them. Then before she leaves, she takes whatever she wants from their houses as payment."

Usopp's face crinkled in disapproval. "She doesn't sound like a very nice lady."

"Kinda sounds like she's a pirate." Luffy mumbled into his mug of cocoa.

"But how is a woman as old as she is capable of getting down that mountain?"

"It's an odd rumor around here," Dalton answered the princess. "Several of the villagers claim they've seen her at night, riding a sleigh of some kind through the sky. They see her silhouette when the moon is out. That's the reason she is thought to be a witch."

"She sounds more like Santa Claus to me..." I commented.

"There are others who say they'd seen her with a strange creature. A creature that none of them recognize."

Usopp began to shout, quivering in fear at the very idea. "See? I knew it! A snow monster! Where there's snow, there's gotta be snow monsters! Oh, I knew there'd be one! Oh no, oh no! I don't wanna run into one!"

I shot the sniper a look."Nami's trying to rest, you know."

"Dr. Kureha is the only doctor we have," Dalton sighed. "But, she's still a woman I would prefer to stay away from... All we can do is wait for the next time she decides to come down the mountain."

Vivi sunk. "Really...?"

"But Dalton- er, sir," I fumbled awkwardly. "We just don't have that kinda time to kill. Nami could die and, Vivi..."

"No, dammit!" Sanji griped in frustration. "We can't wait for that long. Nami's getting worse as we speak."

"Hey Nami," Luffy spoke up, suddenly looming over the navigators bedside.

"Nami, wake up now."

He also happened to be slapping her in the face.

"YOU IDIOT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER?!" everyone screamed at the captain, our loud, booming voices causing the redhead to finally wake.

"Hey look, she's awake!" Luffy brightened once he caught sight of her russet brown eyes slowly peeling open to the world. "Here's the thing, Nami; the only way to see the doctor is to climb the mountain. So we're gonna have to climb the mountain."

"Are you crazy?!" Sanji protested. "What about Nami? How do you expect to get her up there?"

"Easy, she'll ride on my back."

"That's only going to make her feel even more sick!"

"What's the problem?" Luffy eyed the princess matter-of-factly. "I thought we needed to hurry."

"We do, but you'll never make it up there." the woman jerked a finger to the distant mountains. "Look at how steep and tall that thing is!"

I frowned. "I don't know, Luffy. What if you drop her?"

"I could do it."

"Maybe you can, but climbing that thing would be way too hard on Nami!" The cook snapped, running a stressful hand through his gold locks.

"Well, look, even if we fall or something, we'll land in snow."

"That doesn't matter!" Vivi shook her head. "A fall like that would kill even a healthy person."

Usopp tried to rationalize. "Seriously Luffy, she has a really bad fever. It's so high she's almost _dying_. Don't you understand that?"

"...a... I..."

We all froze at the sudden, weak noise, and glanced our eyes over the struggling navigator. Heavily she panted, but determined she was to find the strength to speak.

"...Nami?" I put my hand to my chest, as the rest of us watched her with growing concern.

"I..." she inhaled deeply. "...I need to get over this thing, and quickly... We need to hurry.. for Vivi..." Slowly, the woman pulled her hand from under the covers, and held her palm out to the captain with a soft smile.

"Come on, captain. Let's go."

I, like the rest of us, were completely stunned by her willingness to go through with the crazy plan. It was so unlike Nami, to follow one of Luffy's reckless motives without any backtalk. But while the rest of us stood there slack-jawed watching the scene unfold, Luffy only smirked at the girl, a little snicker jumping out his throat while he high fived her pale hand.

"That's what I'm talking about. Leave it to me."

I was still unsure if this plan was the best way to go about our troublesome situation, but seeing that small exchange between the navigator and her captain... I was certain that Nami's faith in him was enough to believe that she would be okay. Something in the way they looked at each other in that moment told me something; no matter what catastrophe they might face, there was no way Luffy would let her die. He was a man who would put his life on the line to protect his comrades without a second thought, and Nami believed that wholeheartedly.

I was beginning to see why the others respected Luffy as their captain.

* * *

_Drum Island: Bighorn Village, 11:37 am_

"I can't believe this, now our navigator's as crazy as our captain!"

"You know you're in no shape for a trip like this, Nami."

"Are you sure you'll be okay? It'll take you hours to get there."

"Hey old guy, gimme some meat for the road!"

"Right," The cook squared his shoulders, staring down the mountain trail with sharp, determined eyes. "I'm coming too."

"Listen Luffy," Usopp pointed a stern finger at his captain. "Be very careful. You can't fall even once, or Nami is going to die."

The rubber man scoffed. "Not even once?"

Meanwhile, Vivi knelt before the boy, hard at work wrapping a tight band of fabric around his waist. It was her own clever little idea in order to make sure Nami's body stayed secure to Luffy's while he climbed her up the mountain.

"Hold still a second, I need to make sure that this is tight," the princess instructed, making one final, fierce tug at the material; creating a firm, air tight double knot in the process. "Okay, you're all set. I'm going to wait for you here. If I came with you guys, I'd only get in the way."

"Yep. Me too." Usopp added curtly.

"I think I'll sit this one out too." I shrugged. "With both Sanji and Luffy on the journey, I'm sure Nami has more than enough protection."

"Alright." the captain nodded, sending a smile back over his own shoulder. "Now you just hold on tight to me, okay Nami?"

The redhead grunted in response, too exhausted for conversation.

"I guess you're set on going." Dalton spoke, with an underlying worry. "I'm not going to try to stop you, but I will at least ask you to climb up from the other side. That way, you can avoid the lopins that are on this side."

I blinked. "Lopins?"

"They're fierce, carnivorous rabbits. If you run into a pack of them, you're as good as dead."

Vivi and Usopp stiffened at the thought.

"Really? But we've gotta get up there..." Luffy turned to Sanji with a slight frown. "We'll be just fine, right?"

"Yeah." The cook nodded confidently, dead set on keeping the navigator safe.

"You can't be serious! You know how easily those things can kill you?!" Dalton scoffed at the pair, baffled by their ignorance.

"Nah, we'll be alright." Luffy waved a hand to the rest of us in farewell, starting down the snowy trail with impressive speed. "Now hurry it up Sanji, before Nami dies!"

"Don't say stuff like that, you idiot! Do you wanna jinx us?!" Sanji glared daggers into the back of the captains head.

Luffy only laughed, his giddy, loud, familiar laugh while the three of us saw the boys off; with high hopes filling each of our hearts.

_Just be safe... all of you._

"...Are you sure they'll be alright?"

Usopp held his arms. "Well, it's not really _those_ two we need to worry about."

"Nami's the one in trouble..." Vivi finished, her voice turning glum. "I just hope her strength can hold out long enough. She's getting sicker by the minute."

The three of them were barely visible now, just little specks far down on the other side of the trail, but we kept watching them. We'd been staring for so long, we didn't realize we'd been standing around in the cold long enough for our toes to go numb and our noses to turn rosy.

"Why are you standing there?"

I blinked at the sound of Dalton's voice, bringing my mind back to reality. Pulling my gaze from the boys in the distance, I turned back to see the man standing at his door, looking over us expectantly.

"Come on inside. It's cold out here."

Vivi smiled politely, shaking her head. "Oh, no. That's really okay. I want to stay out here."

"Me too." The sniper agreed through chattering teeth, paying no mind to his violent shivering.

I was cold too, but like the other two, I wanted to remain as I was. I wasn't sure why, but it felt like staying outside, where I could see the others departing on the road that would soon lead them to the rockies, would somehow grant them a generous quantity of good luck. Even though I wasn't accompanying them, I could do my part by giving support in any way I could think of.

So I smiled and nodded to Dalton, in agreement with the rest, and he watched us all for a while, before a soft chuckle left his throat.

"I see," he closed his door, sitting himself down on his snow littered porch. "Well, in that case, I'll join you."

Surprised by his attitude, Vivi chuckled a little, shooting him another appreciative grin. I turned to my right, giving the mountain trail one last look. The shadows of the three figures from before had now vanished, disappeared long out of sight. Luffy's plan was now fully underway, and the witch hunt had begun.

* * *

_Drum Island: Bighorn Village, 11:46 am_

"We did once have some here on this island, you know. Some doctors." Dalton's voice broke the silence. "However, all of them left sometime ago for certain reasons. They were very good at what they did while they were still here. We were even well known for the advanced medicine that was practiced on this island."

"So what went wrong?"

Dalton stared hard into his lap at the response of Vivi's inquiry.

"A few months ago, we suffered a vicious attack, and our country was destroyed. Destroyed by pirates."

"Oh man!" Usopp exclaimed. "The whole country?"

"So that's the reason you acted that way when we showed up."

"Yes." Dalton nodded to the princess. "After the attack, the word 'pirate' still terrifies everyone on this island. I'm sorry about the way we treated you. Their group was small as well, only five people. The captain called himself Blackbeard."

At the mention of his name, I gasped hard.

"Their power was so incredible, they destroyed our entire country faster than you would believe."

"And there were only five of them fighting?" Vivi uttered. "That's impossible..!"

"Blackbeard?! He was really here?" I questioned, my tone almost coming off demanding. Dalton halted in his thoughts suddenly, him and the rest giving me surprised and now mildly suspicious looks.

"Do you... know of this man?"

"Who hasn't? But..." I paused, my voice falling low. "...We were friends, once."

Vivi and Usopp began to fire off.

"You and Blackbeard?! Seriously?!"

"But... but how? Why?!"

Uncomfortably, I stared at my feet. "Well, he was really more of an acquaintance than friend, but yes. We knew each other on a personal level."

Dalton's eyes grew big. "You have that close of a connection to this man? Do you mind if I ask how?"

"I don't mind." I shook my head, slightly nervous. "But please! I don't want you guys to get the wrong idea about me. Back when I knew him, Blackbeard, he.. he used to be much different. Or at least, I thought he was."

"What do you mean, Myra?" Vivi asked, her voice gentle and encouraging.

"A lot of rumors flow around through the mouths of sailors. From what I heard, he's been causing a lot of mayhem over the past year. I've heard so many stories... none of which I know for sure are true or not, but..." my gaze sharpened. "He's a dangerous man. That one's for certain."

The sniper shivered. "Blackbeard..."

"What's more," Dalton added. "There are some here who actually believe that his invasion was good for the country."

"What could possibly be good about that happening?!" Vivi whirled, Usopp shouting after her.

"That's crazy! Who would say something like that anyway?!"

Dalton lifted his head, smiling at the princess and the sharpshooter. "Thank you, I agree. But they have their reasons. The king who ruled here before the attack was a horrible man. His rule was despised by all of the citizens. Our country used to be known as Drum Kingdom, and our king's name was Wapol." the man's eyes narrowed, ill aware of our sudden shocked expressions. "He was the worst king imaginable."

I turned to the others. "That name sure rings a bell, doesn't it?"

"Yes, I remember him." Vivi replied hollowly. "I know that man."

"Not Wapol!" Usopp's voice filled with dread.

"You say his name as if he were near unstoppable." I snorted. "That guy was nothing."

"Yeah, but still..."

Dalton looked upon us dumbly, his dark eyes blinking in surprise. "What's that? You mean you know who Wapol is?"

"Know who he is?" the sniper's voice burst. "He's the pirate who attacked our ship not too long ago. But, I was able to take care of him."

"You liar," I grinned devilishly, arms crossed. "_Luffy _was the one who gave that guy a good wallop, while you cowered behind the mast the whole time!"

"Did you have to say that in front of him..?" Usopp twitched uncomfortably, his voice filling with embarrassment at my blowing his cover. "Anyways, now that I think about it, I do remember him saying something about heading to Drum Kingdom."

The princess nodded. "Yes, there's no question about it now. I remember it clearly. I'm sure I met him once at a monarch meeting my father took me to. I was still very young then, but I remember it to this day."

Dalton froze. "A monarch meeting?"

The man shot strange, curious looks in Vivi's direction and, once she'd realized the words that came out of her mouth, the woman flinched, mentally kicking herself in the head for being so careless.

"Who _are_ you?"

"Oh, no! I uh-" she sputtered, quickly changing the subject. "Well! The point is, we do know Wapol. We ran into him yesterday, when we were on our way here."

"Yesterday? Are you sure about that?"

"It wasn't too far away from here where we'd encountered him either." I added. Then, with a grim tone, "I hate to say it, but this could mean more trouble for you and the other villagers."

"But then, I don't understand what's going on here." Vivi expressed. "He said he was a pirate, he didn't say anything about being a king."

"He's just calling himself a pirate as some kind of disguise. In truth, Wapol is only wandering the seas, trying desperately to return to this island." Dalton clarified.

"So then, Wapol and the people who were on his ship with him were kicked off the island because they were no match for the pirates? Is that what happened?"

Suddenly, the man's mood drew into something dark, as the princess' innocent question sent his expressions morphing into a brutal anger.

"That's not it, no." Dalton muttered, his voice filling with hatred with each word spilled off his tongue. "When it happened, when we were attacked... Wapol's army didn't even try to fight!"

The princess' breath seemed to have caught in her throat while Dalton's hands had begun balling into tight fists.

"In fact, the second he learned how strong the pirates were, Wapol grabbed his cronies and ran like a coward!" the man continued to spat. "He was the first one to abandon his country and flee out to sea. After that, the country felt utter despair. We were left behind by our king-"

"What sort of king would would do that to his country?!" Vivi roared, utterly disgusted. "A king abandoning his people? Just the thought of that makes me absolutely sick!"

Usopp felt he could do nothing but stare at the princess, shooting her sympathetic looks. "Vivi..."

I said nothing, only settled a soothing hand on the woman's shoulder; rubbing small patterns over the weight to aid in calming her rage.

"You're absolutely right." Dalton finally returned, his own voice back to it's regular calm. "The one good thing that came out of it though, was the end of Wapol's tyrannical rule. The people who are left on this island have come together now, we're trying to create a new country. So what we fear right now is the return of Wapol and his followers. The return of his brutal rule. We can't afford for him to come back now with the country so unstable, it would be the end of us. We want to build ourselves a new, peaceful nation on this island."

"And that's going to be hard to do if he manages to find this island..." I finished, my voice soft and sullen.

A quiet, foreboding silence fell between each of us for a while, only fading once the sniper decided to make a comment on the weather.

"The snows really starting to pick up, huh?"

Vivi nodded in response, not really looking at the man. Instead of making light of the situation, Usopp's comment only seemed to have heightened the princess' anxiety, as she drew into herself, saying nothing.

"Hey," I smiled surely, doing what I always did best. "Don't worry. They'll get there."

"Tell me something," Dalton started. "Who are you guys?"

"Why do you ask that?" Usopp questioned.

"Well, a group of only seven people traveling the Grand Line in a ship without a doctor, it seems incredibly reckless."

"In case you forgot, we're pirates." the sniper's voice clipped. "That's the reason you guys were pointing all those guns at us. Remember?"

"Hey, hey, there's no need to get defensive. He apologized." I scolded, and Usopp huffed in response.

"Now, we may be a small group, true." his face molded into a smug grin. "But with a brave warrior of the sea on board, there's nothing to fear from anyone or anything."

_Oh, here we go..._

Dalton looked over the outlandish sharpshooter. "...Er, okay?"

"Even though we are very brave, we are looking for someone to be the ship's doctor. In fact, I was really hoping we'd find one here on this island. Of course, what I wasn't expecting was that the doctor here would be a witch living in a castle."

"Well, she's all we have." the man continued to examine us with incredulous eyes. "You guys certainly seem to be much different than the pirates we're used to."

"Hello Dalton! I was looking for you." a new voice called us all to attention. The vaguely familiar figure of a large woman approached, her big feet stomping ferociously down the village's icy path.

"It's that lady from before." I observed.

Next to me, Usopp visibly flinched before hastily bending himself forward. Under his breath, he mumbled, "Bow to the bear."

"Hey, show some respect!" I elbowed him in the side, scolding him for the second time that morning.

"What can I do for you?" Dalton addressed the woman.

"I heard the newcomers were looking for Dr. Kureha."

"Yes, but the sick woman's friends have already taken her up the mountain."

"Oh, that's too bad," the woman waved a flippant hand. "Because I heard the doctor's in Cocoa Weed right now."

A momentary pause dropped through the surroundings, before everyone unanimously screeched wildly out their mouths.

"SHE'S WHERE?!"

"So Nami and the others have already passed her?!" Usopp exclaimed.

"Oh man, ohhh man, this is bad!" I pressed a hand to my forehead. "You don't think they've already made it to the mountain, do you?"

"I don't know, I don't think so." Vivi spun to the man. "Dalton, you said there were dangerous rabbits in that area, right?"

"Yes. It is possible that they may have run into a few and they've stalled them in their journey, but either way, we can't afford to waste anymore time."

Mouth pressed in a firm line, he turned to us without delay.

"You all need to come with me. Right now."

* * *

**Thank you guys SO much for the positive reviews, as well as the new faves and follows! Really, your support means the world :'D I hope you've all been enjoying your summer. Another frosty chapter will be coming your way soon!**

**\- Natalie **


	9. The Great White

**Chapter 9: The Great White**

* * *

_Drum Island: Village Pathways, 12:22 pm_

"I'm sorry, this is my mistake." Dalton apologized to the three of us, settled into the backseat of his sled. The gazelles harnessed to the front were currently pulling us along the road to Cocoa Weed as fast as their dark, shiny hooves could take them. "I was aware that the doctor had come to town from the mountains the last few days, but I assumed that she had left and wouldn't be back for quite some time."

"Don't worry about it, this isn't your fault." the sharpshooter ensured. "The problem here is how abnormally strong Luffy and Sanji are. Even if we go up the mountain after them, there's no way we'd be able to catch up to them. If we are able to find the witch in this Cocoa Weed place, we just need to tell her to get back up the mountain as quickly as she possibly can."

"You're right, that's true." Vivi looked into her lap. "We have no other choice."

"...Forgive us."

That sudden comment sent my gaze forward. "It's alright, Dalton." I consoled. "It's like Usopp said; this isn't your fault."

Dalton's head shook. "Forgive this land for not having more doctors."

"Don't say that." Vivi stopped him. "This isn't something that you need to be apologizing for, Dalton."

"She's right about that." Usopp supported.

For a brief moment, through the eyes of the guilty man flickered a small hint of what could only be the pressing weight of his indiscretion, before tightening his hold on the reigns sitting in his hands.

"Let's hurry."

With a swift whip of the thin ropes, the sled picked up its speed, and I could have sworn I'd spotted a short glimpse of a wooden sign as the animals continued to gallop past bundles of forest.

_We must be getting close... _

"...Dalton," The sniper disturbed the silence.

"Hm?"

"You haven't told us who you are yet." Usopp waited until the man spared a short chance to look him in the eye. "It doesn't really seem like you're just an ordinary villager. You have this certain way of speaking that makes me think of a military officer."

"Well, he did say he was captain of the security squad here." I deduced.

"...You're correct." Dalton affirmed, strangely hesitant. "I am the captain of the island's security squad, but... I also served this country once as well. Under our former tyrant, Wapol."

I inhaled sharply, joining the others in their surprise. "W..What?"

"I became the captain of this country's security guard long ago. At the time when Wapol's father ruled here. However, the time came when the king died, and his rule was then handed down to his son, Wapol. When that happened, this country changed."

* * *

"_I have come up with yet another brilliant new law. I've decided that I'm going to exile the country's doctors."_

"_What?"_

"_Exile-"_

"_The doctors?!" _

"_Yes... I'll keep the twenty best doctor's in the land, and they will be my private physicians. I'll call them the twenty MD's!"_

"_The twenty MD's?"_

"_That's right. The twenty MD's will be just for me, and the rest will be exiled!"_

"_What a great idea Wapol, you're so smart!"_

"_No! If you do this, then who will the people go to when they're sick or injured?!"_

"_Why should I care about what happens to those useless people? If anyone needs a doctor, they will have to grovel before me. Anyone who disobeys me will be refused any treatment at all. This way, no one in the entire country will dare defy me! I'm such a genius sometimes, it kills me!"_

* * *

"...Wow." Usopp gawked. "So from then on, anyone who got sick had no choice but to throw themselves on Wapol's mercy and hope that the twenty MD's would treat them?"

Dalton growled in anger of the memory. "Yes, and pay excessive medical fees."

"So basically Wapol was ruling the country by taking the citizens lives and holding them hostage? That's not ruling! What sort of king would do that?! It's tyranny." Vivi scowled, and I hummed bitterly in response.

"It's disgusting, is what it is..."

* * *

_Drum Island: Cocoa Weed (Restaurant), 12:53 pm_

"Wait, what are you telling us?" Usopp singled out a stranger in the middle of the crowded diner. "You mean the witch left this town just a few moments ago?! Oh, you gotta be kidding me! This is ridiculous!"

"She left after she made my sickness all better." a little boy, sprawled out across a spare booth near me and Vivi, smiled gleefully. I grinned back shortly, before turning my attention back to the sharpshooter.

"Alright, just calm down." I scolded. "You're making a scene. This is a good thing, isn't it? She must be on her way back to the mountains then, right?"

"Not if there are still other patients to be treated in town first." Dalton exhaled, pressing a tired hand to his forehead.

A new stranger joined the conversation. "If you're looking for the doctor, she's already left." he informed.

"We have to find her." Dalton urged. "Can you tell us where she was headed when she left here?"

"I think I know. I heard from somebody else that she was headed for Gyasta."

"Gyasta?"

Usopp shot Dalton an expectant stare. "So where is that?"

"If we were going to Gyasta from Bighorn we'd go in the opposite direction that we went to come here."

"Oh, great!" The sniper whined again. "We already passed her?!"

"Ice skating is very popular there..."

"What does that have to do with anything?! Who cares about that?!"

"Calm _down_, Usopp." Vivi wedged herself in front of him, her voice firm.

"This is a trainwreck..." I groaned.

"We need to get going to that town. At this point, we really don't have any time to lose." the princess continued to reason with the sniper. He grumbled irritably in response.

"Yeah, you're right..."

"D..Dalton...!" an unfamiliar, struggling voice suddenly filled the surroundings of the restaurant, catching the attention of everyone in it. Looking to the left of me, my eyes laid upon the distressing sight of a young man, critically injured in his state, breathing ragged and clutching his torso in poor efforts to stop the blood from seeping out of the large gash that lay there.

"I found you at last..."

"Yes guard, but I thought you were standing watch today." Dalton uttered, his eyes gone wide. Before the injured man could respond, his knees gave way to his exhaustion and his collapsing body headed for the floor. Fortunately, Dalton lunged forward in enough time to catch the guard before he made the harsh contact with the diner's checkerboard tiles.

"What's the matter?!" he demanded, his voice now clearly reflecting his concern. "I can tell that you've been badly injured, tell me what went wrong."

The younger man coughed painfully, struggling to speak through his bloodstained teeth. "Every watchmen except for me... they've all been killed, Dalton."

"What?!"

"This thing, this submarine sailboat..." he wheezed. "It came out of nowhere, and it attacked us. They killed every one of the watchmen, we.. couldn't stop them."

"Who are 'they?'" Dalton coerced. "I don't understand. Please, explain this!"

"PLEASE!" the wounded guard hollered abruptly, raising a shaky hand to clutch onto Dalton's arm. "Dalton, you have to help us! We aren't strong enough to fight them, you have to do something!"

At first, Dalton left the watchmen's desperate plea lingering without a response, searching for answers, before his face had twisted into something of great fury.

"What's wrong?" Usopp eyed the man, confused. Dalton was left only shaking, his shoulders stiffening in his rage, and when he spoke, his voice returned a dangerously low snarl.

"It was them..."

"It was Wapol!" the wounded guard cried. "Wapol, and his men... they... came back!"

I gasped quietly, along with the other strangers in the restaurant who'd begun to panic at the mention of the fallen king's name. For a long while, Dalton remained silent, before finally deciding to let go of the young man, and he rushed himself out the door.

"Hey, wait!" Usopp raised a halting palm. "Dalton, wait!"

But the sniper couldn't stop him. The stifled sound of a sled scraping through a road of snow rang through the outside, the noise only dispersing when it's echo resonated too quiet for our ears to pick it up any longer. Dalton was already long gone.

I frowned. "So... now what?"

* * *

_Drum Island: Village Pathways, 1:11 pm_

And so, our wild goose chase for the mysterious Dr. Kureha continued. With all the precious lost time ticking past our heads, admittedly, the three of us were beginning to stress. A depleted sigh escaped me as I rubbed gloved hands together in efforts to warm my numbing fingertips; and as I remained here with the other two, replaying the chain of recent events over and over in my mind, I attempted to backtrack my memory to try and figure out the exact moment when the witch hunt suddenly became ourburden to bear.

After Dalton made his hasty escape at the restaurant, the diner's manager was nice enough to let us borrow his own sled to carry us the way to Gyasta. Apparently Usopp was in too much of a hurry to remember his manners, but Vivi and I made sure to thank the man for his generosity.

"Hey Vivi, are you sure we're going in the right direction to get to this Gyasta town where the witch is?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I'm not exactly sure where we're going." Vivi responded to the sharpshooter, examining the map in her hands.

"But we're in pretty bad shape if you're not sure." Usopp pressed. "You know if Luffy and Sanji manage to make it to the castle and the doctor isn't there, they'll just turn around and leave."

"So why not try helping the poor girl figure out the map, then?" I teased.

"I don't see you doing anything."

"I tried!" I pouted, crossing my arms. "But this map's layout is more complicated then you think."

"So then what makes you think I'll have better luck? I'm no navigator."

"Yeah? Well our navigator is out of commission right now, so we're gonna have to do the best we can without her."

Usopp raised a quizzical brow. "_Our _navigator?"

"Ah-" I froze, my face flushing as red as my hair in embarrassment. "Er, I mean, _your _navigator."

Usopp's gaze remained on me a few seconds more, before he shrugged the awkward comment off and continued the conversation with Vivi as if nothing happened (thankfully). "We have to make it to the place, find the doctor, and tell her to go back up the mountain. Nami's running out of time pretty quickly-"

"Yes, I realize that, Usopp." the princess cut him off, mild irritation ghosting her voice.

"Well if you realize that, then do something about it. You're a princess, right?"

"What does that have to do with anything? I can't snap my fingers and make it happen. I'm a princess, not a witch."

"So what?"

Without warning, Vivi shoved the complex map in the sniper's face. "Oh, fine. Why don't you go ahead and take a look at the map?"

"Yeah, Usopp." I shot him a wry smile. "Why _don't _you take a look at the map?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" he defended. "What am I supposed to do with that? There's snow covering everything."

The princess turned smug. "So then you don't know either."

"Yep, I don't know anything either." the sniper admitted, with full confidence.

"And you're proud of that fact?" Vivi snorted. "At any rate, if we keep to this route, we should see a sign for this Gyasta place somewhere along it. Keep your eyes open."

"Sure thing, just leave it to me. I'll watch for signs of the sign! There's no way I'll miss it."

"You goofball." I chuckled.

As the time passed me by, I found myself steadily losing focus, and somewhere along the way, our sled had headed down a wrong path. Once the three of us realized we'd blindly led the sled animals to a wrong turn, it was too late before we found ourselves stuck in a dead end pathway with nothing but more evergreen awaiting us. The mountain with Dr. Kureha's castle home sitting atop it could be seen in the far distance, mocking us from all the way across a largely angled plain of snow that was far too deep for any of us to cross from where our sled was parked.

"This doesn't look good." Usopp sighed. "We won't be able to go any further in this deep snow."

Vivi scanned the empty surroundings. "It seems like we've gone partially up the mountain."

"How could we be anywhere near the mountain? All I see is trees, trees, and more trees!" I started to complain, before a sudden tremor beneath my feet cut me short.

"What's this..? Why is the ground shaking?" Vivi eyed the snow dressed earth, confused and concerned.

As the small vibrations began to grow stronger and fiercer, without delay, dread had found its way into the pit of each of our stomachs, and the princess' expression very quickly changed into something of great alarm.

"Oh no... Usopp! Myra! Is this... what I think it is?"

Heart thrumming loudly, I hesitated upon answering, not wishing to say it out loud. "Could it... be an earthquake?"

"N... N-No.. It's..." Usopp's jaw hung open, and I felt my breath hitch as I put two and two together.

"You're kidding... it's-"

Far above us, a heaping field of snow began it's threatening stampede down the distant mountain top.

"AN AVALANCHE!" Usopp cried.

"We have to get out of here right now!"

"No shit!" I hopped out of the sled after Vivi with no less than a second to spare. "Usopp, come on!"

The three of us scrambled to our feet and ran as far and fast as we possibly could, following after the packs of animals fleeing from the forests to what hopefully would be safer ground, while the title wave of snow rapidly caught up with our smaller, defenseless forms. Next to me, Usopp was panicking so hard he'd driven himself to tears, desperately trying to reassure himself that we would make it through this natural disaster.

"We'll be alright, we'll be alright, I promise, you guys! Even if we get buried by this, I'll be able to save you, I'm sure!"

"Oh wow, I feel so much better now!" I lashed out, my voice filled full of both sarcasm and terror.

"Luffy and the others headed in that direction, right?!" Vivi distressed. "Do you think the avalanche could have already gotten to them?!"

"God, I hope not!" I heaved. My lungs felt as if they'd been set to flame from how fast I'd been running, but I wouldn't dare let myself stop for even a second. I only wished it were possible to move any faster through all of the deep snow we were forced to trudge ourselves through. Nibbling on the inside of my cheek, I let my adrenaline work for me, and tried my absolute hardest to focus only on the continuous pounding of one foot in front of the other.

Behind us, the sonorant rumbling of snow grew even greater volume, and Usopp was foolish enough to spare a chance looking back. "Oh GOD! It's gaining on us!"

"Just keep running!" Vivi screamed. "RUN!"

By this point, I ran so hard I swore my legs were going to fall off; all the while I could hear the little voice in the back of my head telling me over and over, _you're only prolonging the inevitable. _

That little voice was every bit of right. A wave of cold hit the back of me with such a force I felt my body toss itself forward. The others forgotten, an intense, stinging chill followed directly after, the snow swallowing me up and caging me into it's heavy current. Tiny, cold daggers stabbed themselves through every last one of my nerves.

Until I couldn't feel anything at all.

* * *

_Drum Island: Outskirts, 2:04 pm_

I woke to the feel of someone's hand guiding me out of my comatose, jerking my body and alerting my senses.

"Nnh.. What..." my fuzzy vision managed to make out the silhouette of a pale face, and long, wavy blue tresses. "Vivi..? Where is..."

Slowly, my eyes shifted themselves to the right, and once the blur in my eyesight had faded enough to grant me a clear perspective once again, standing next to the princess I'd witnessed was a horrifyingly beaten image of the sniper's face.

"GYAAAAAH! USOPP, YOU LOOK TERRIBLE!" I shrieked, shielding myself from the disturbing sight of his severely swollen complexion.

"Gee, thanks..." he replied flatly, and Vivi raised a sheepish finger.

"Eheh... actually, you can thank me for that one. You see, Usopp needed a little... assistance, in waking up."

Eyes narrowing, I spared a moment to exchange a pointed look between the pair. "Okay, I'm not even going to ask... but geez, Usopp! Don't scare me like that."

"I'm... sorry?"

"Anyway, where are we?" I inquired, my gaze traveling over nothing but countless yards of deep snow.

"That's what we've been trying to figure out." The princess replied, extending her gloved hand and helping me to my numb feet.

The three of us trekked on clumsily through the deep white tundra together, counting our blessings that we were all lucky enough to survive such a calamitous landslide, when Vivi lost her footing on a particular area of snow beneath her that started moving at the touch of her step. Abruptly, a figure turned itself upward from the depths of the cold, fluffy substance, causing the woman to fall backwards.

"Gahhh! Monster!" Usopp cowered away from the mysterious figure, until it shook off the last of the snow on it's head, revealing to us a head of short, messy green hair that could only have belonged to one person.

"Woah... that was a close one. Why do I feel like I dreamed about a field of flowers?" Zoro rambled on, voice slurred and disoriented. His teeth chattered together as he held his bare arms, turned red and blistering from the frostbite the half-naked fool was no doubt developing. "Hit by an avalanche in the middle of a training session, not exactly an ideal workout... but I guess it is kinda like swimming in snow."

"Zoro?"

"Oh, hey Vivi. What's up?" he greeted the princess, before his eyes fixed on me, acknowledging my presence of ill will.

"Myra."

"Zoro." I smirked.

He turned to Usopp then, his eyes sharpening with confusion. "And.. uh..." eventually, he took note of the long nose, just barely visible among all of his swollen welts. "Oh, it's you Usopp. What are you guys doing all the way out here in the snow?"

"That's exactly what we were gonna ask you!" both the sniper and princess snapped at the man.

"Also, what's with the no-shirt-no-shoes look you got going on?" I tilted my head. "You do realize how cold it is out here, don't you?"

"It was part of my training!" Zoro defended.

"What sort of training involves you having to strip down in _this _kind of weather?"

"I was doing some winter swimming."

"Winter swimming?" Usopp echoed while the four of us continued to move out. The swordsman nodded.

"Yeah, that was the idea, anyway. But after swimming in the river for a while, I had no idea where I was anymore. So I started walking around, doing some strength training workouts."

Usopp lifted a brow. "Dressed like that in cold weather? You're real stupid, aren't you?"

"That isn't the point!" Zoro groused hotly. "Now would you shut up and give me your coat, Usopp?!"

"Not a chance." he deadpanned.

"Then how about your shoes?"

"Nope."

"Just one, then."

"I said no! You did this to yourself."

"That's what'cha get for being unprepared~" I taunted, gauging the swordsman's anger.

"No one asked you!"

"Wait," Vivi spoke up, holding an arm out, signaling us to stop in our tracks as we approached the end of a cliff. "Look at that, guys. There's some people over there." she gestured to the ground below, where two big crowds of people seem to have gathered.

"Hey, look at those buildings." Usopp pointed to the tops of houses peeking out from under all the deep layers of fallen snow. "They seem familiar, don't they?"

"The rooftops are cone-shaped..." I observed.

"You're right, this place is Bighorn." Vivi's chocolate eyes lit up. "We just came back. It looks a lot different buried in snow, though."

"Stay back, all of you!" someone shouted from one of the crowds, aiming a shotgun toward the other group of people. "Dalton's already dead, anyway!"

"No way..." I gasped, nudging Vivi next to me. "Did you hear that?!"

The princess only nodded, grim and silent.

"It'd take more than a couple flimsy arrows to kill him!" another person shouted, this time from the opposing crowd. "You're his men! Or used to be, at least. Don't you care at all about what happens to Dalton?!"

"Things have changed. We're all Wapol's soldiers now! And any one of you who opposes Wapol is as good as dead!"

"Hey," Zoro spoke, his voice small from our standing as we noticed him suddenly below the cliff, actively approaching the scene. "What's going on here?"

"Zoro?!" I gawked "What the hell is he doing? When did he get down there?!"

"Let's follow him." Vivi prompted, starting ahead without delay.

"Uh, sure." I ran down after her, with Usopp trailing behind me.

"What's going on here?!" someone from the crowd of villagers reiterated Zoro's question, as if the answer should be obvious. But when the man spun around to answer the swordsman's inquiry, his words had stopped short after laying his eyes on the shocking sight of Zoro clothed in nothing but a pair of pants in the middle of 50 below zero weather. "Wait, what's going on with _you? _Why are you dressed like that?"

"Dalton is... buried under the snow that came down with the avalanche." another villager answered for him.

"What?!" Usopp exclaimed.

"Dalton's under that?!" Vivi's wide eyes searched all over the snow.

"That's right, and we can't get over there to take him out because those guys are blocking us."

"For the last time; stay back." one of Wapols men advised, raising his gun in warning. Nearby, another soldier snickered and mocked us.

"But if you really wanna dig your friend up, I guess you can go ahead and try fighting us all."

"That can be arranged." I glowered, stepping forward.

"Hey, Usopp." Zoro turned his head. "I think I remember their clothing. Those are the same guys who attacked our ship when we were out on the ocean. Right?"

"Huh?" the sharpshooter blinked. "Oh, yeah. That's right."

"Then they're our enemy. The bad guys. Not our friends... you follow me?"

"Yeah, but..." Usopp started, his voice quickly filling with protest once his eyes locked on the swordsman's. "Wait a second, I know that look!"

"Usopp," I called, my voice stern and serious, signaling the sniper to look at me. "They attacked us, damaged your ship, possibly killed one of the only guys around here willing to help us out... and you're just gonna let that slide?"

It seemed the man could only grant me a dull stare, unsure of how to respond. I shook my head in resolve.

"No way. Not on my watch."

"Hah! You aren't so brave without Dalton around!" the same soldier from the other crowd continued to laugh. His cocky attitude didn't last very long, however, after Zoro came charging at him with a tight fist that shut him right up with a punch strong enough to send his body toppling backward.

"No! Zoro, what are you doing?!" Vivi yelled. The man was left crumpling on the ground, groaning in pain and clutching onto his bleeding lip. The rest of Wapol's men were seen swiftly turning on their defenses.

"Who was that guy?!"

"You need to be careful!" a villager warned. "Nothing good will come from attacking them!"

The swordsman chose to ignore everyone's objecting voices, stalking toward the man he'd punched out with ruthless intimidation. All too effortlessly, Zoro robbed the injured soldier of his boots and coat, wrapping it around his exposed form. "Aah, this is so warm!" he hugged the thick material now dressing his frozen body. "I really like this thing."

"_That's_ why you wanted to know who they were?!" Usopp hollered.

"And here I thought he was going to do something admirable..." I plastered my hand over my face. "What an idiot."

The rest of Wapol's men marched their way through heated steps to the swordsman, who was too busy relishing in the glorious new warmth he'd been so badly craving after.

"Watch out, Zoro! They don't look very happy!" the sharpshooter warned.

"I know you!" one of them spat. "You were on the ship with that guy who beat up Wapol, weren't you?!"

Zoro turned to face them, wearing the nastiest of smirks. "That's right. You're a little slow, aren't you?"

That final, witty remark was enough to finally set Wapol's men off. Every single one of them began charging at the man, but fluently enough, Zoro dodged their attacks with little to no effort.

"Are you looking for something?" the swordsman inquired. "Maybe... these?" he turned back around, several saber swords now in his hands. I figured he must have stolen the weapons somehow from the soldiers without any of them realizing. Without any of _us _realizing, for that matter. Rather impressive of him, I'd thought.

"Man, let's get this guy!" one of them growled, signaling the rest of the men to outbreak once more.

The swordsman discarded any extra weapons he didn't need, until all he had left were three blades. "Hey, Myra!" he called out to me, catching me off guard and earning my attention.

"Er... yes?"

"For once, you and I agree on something."

A flicker of surprise passed over my features momentarily, before I broke off into a small grin. "It would seem so."

"Right." he smirked, readying his blades to fight. "So, what do you say we have a little fun here and teach these guys a lesson they won't soon forget?"

After a stray moment or two, my grin had turned into something much more sinister, and I chuckled softly under my breath. "Alright, I'm in."

As an impressive hoard of soldiers made their advance on Zoro, I took my stance against the crowd of men now raising their remaining arsenal in my direction. Maintaining a calm demeanor, I removed my mitts and slowly lifted a delicate hand, watching my own fingers as they sweeped through the air, forming a ball of clear, compacted energy in my palm. The men lunged at me, and I flashed a toothy grin.

"Let's play, boys."

* * *

**It's 4 am and I can feel the bags on my eyes but it was so worth it bc I finally got this chapter done! Ayyyy~ fave/follow/review if you wish, I hope you enjoyed reading!**

**\- Natalie**


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